Theatre Bristol proudly presents
Scrooge
A musical by Leslie Bricusse
School Performances: November 5, 6, 7, 12, 13 & 14, 2003 at 9:30 & 11:30 a.m.
Public Performances: November 8, 14 & 15 at 8 p.m. & November 16 at 2:30 p.m.
All performances at the Paramount
Center for the Arts.
Dear Educator,
We are very excited that you have chosen to include Theatre Bristol’s production of Scrooge in your fall curriculum! Based on the classic Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol, this fully staged musical version by Tony-award winner Leslie Bricusse, is sure to be a crowd pleaser.
Theatre Bristol is very proud to be able to bring this classic to the stage for your enjoyment. Hundreds of hours of rehearsal and preparation time have gone into this show, readying it for you and your children. Get geared up for an adventure like no other!
As you prepare for your visit, use the suggested activities inside to enhance your students experience with the play. We have included a broad base of materials to cover many subject areas and enhance your standard curriculum. I hope you find it helpful! As our partner in education, please feel free to adapt the information and activities to best suit the needs and abilities of your students. You are invited to make copies of this study guide for fellow teachers as well as your students.
We hope you enjoy Scrooge. We look forward to seeing you at the theatre!
Sincerely,
Theatre Bristol
Synopsis of the Story
It’s Christmas Eve, 1860. In a chilly London office,
mean-spirited Ebenezer Scrooge mistreats his over-worked and underpaid
clerk, Bob Cratchit, but grudgingly allows him to leave to do
what little Christmas shopping he can on his small weekly wage.
Much later, Scrooge himself leaves the office and begins his
walk home. Uncaring of the season and its meaning, he uses the
time to attempt to collect money owed to him.
Late that night, he is visited by the ghost of his business
partner, Jacob Marley. Marley warns him that he is doomed to
walk the earth as a spirit unless he changes his ways. Scrooge
is told he will be visited by three spirits who will help him
to see the errors he has made in his life. Throughout the night,
Scrooge slowly begins to realize what he has done as the ghosts
of Christmas Past, Present and Future fulfill the promise made
by Marley. The next morning, Scrooge awakens a changed man and
vows to begin his life again that very day. And so he does.
A Christmas Carol Fun Facts
A Christmas Carol was the most successful book of the 1843 holiday
season. By Christmas it sold six thousand copies and it
continued to be popular into the new year. Eight stage adaptations
were in production within two months of the book's publication.
Charles Dickens is credited with inventing the phrase “Merry Christmas”.
According to a 19th century account, an American business owner took A Christmas Carol quite literally. After hearing the story for the first time on Christmas Eve, he proceeded to shut down his factory the next day, giving his employees the day off. In subsequent years, he sweetened the deal: not only did he close the factory doors on Christmas day, but he also distributed free turkeys to all his workers
Early in the 20th century, the queen
of Norway was said to know the story by heart. She sent gifts
to disabled children throughout London with a note attached: "With
Tiny Tim's love."
Cool Websites
Charles Dickens
David Perdue’s Charles Dickens Page
www.fidnet.com/~dap1955/dickens/
University of California- The Dickens
Project
humwww.ucsc.edu/dickens/index.html
Great Dickens site- many links to other
sites and information
www.helsinki.fi/kasv/nokol/dickens.html
A Christmas Carol
Complete text & some small illustrations
www.stormfax.com/dickens.htm
Lots of links, discussions and academic
resources
lang.nagoya-u.ac.jp/~matsuoka/CD-Carol.html
Dickens’ Neglected Holiday Stories
The Chimes
www.literature.org/authors/dickens-charles/chimes/
The Cricket on the Hearth
www.literature.org/authors/dickens-charles/cricket/
The Battle of Life & The Haunted Man (download)
www.promo.net/pg/index.html
A Dickens History
Charles Dickens has probably had more influence on the way that
we celebrate Christmas today than any single individual in human
history except one. Charles John Huffam Dickens, the man who gave
new meaning to the spirit of Christmas, was born in England on
February 7, 1812. He was the second child of eight and the son
of John Dickens, a clerk in the Navy Pay Office. Dickens spent
his early childhood in London and in Chatham. Although his household
was primarily a happy one, it was not free of problems. When he
was 12 his father was imprisoned for debt, and Charles was compelled
to work in a dismal blacking warehouse (blacking is a shoe or
boot polish). The rest of his family was forced to live in debtor’s
prison with his father. From his experience at the factory, where
employees were exposed to harsh treatment and the pay was poor,
Charles began to collect ideas for future stories about the plight
of the needy.
Dickens, because of the childhood trauma caused, was a true champion
to the poor. He repeatedly pointed out the atrocities of the system
through his novels. He never forgot this double humiliation.
At 17 he was a court stenographer, and later he was an expert
parliamentary reporter for the Morning Chronicle. When John Dickens
was free from debtor’s prison, Charles was sent to the Wellington
House Academy where, at last, he could enjoy the benefits of an
education and put his ideas on paper. After he finished school,
he earned money and writing experience as a court reporter for
various London newspapers. By age 21, he submitted Sketches By
Boz, his first published success. His sketches, mostly of London
life (signed Boz), began appearing in periodicals in 1833, and
the collection (1836) was a success.
The early-won fame never deserted Dickens. His readers were eager
and ever more numerous, and Dickens worked vigorously for them,
producing novels that appeared first in monthly installments and
then were made into books. Oliver Twist (in book form, 1838) was
followed by Nicholas Nickleby (1839) and by two works originally
intended to start a series called Master Humphrey's Clock: The
Old Curiosity Shop (1841) and Barnaby Rudge (1841).
The first of his Christmas books was the well-loved A Christmas
Carol (1843). In later years other short novels and stories written
for the season followed, notably The Chimes and The Cricket on
the Hearth. Dickens' description of the holiday as "a good
time: a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time: the only time
I know of in the long calendar of the year, when men and women
seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to
think of other people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers
to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other
journeys" is the very essence of Christmas today, not at
the greedy commercialized level, but in people's hearts and homes.
Dickens' name had become so synonymous with Christmas that on
hearing of his death in 1870 a little costermonger's girl in London
asked, "Mr. Dickens dead? Then will Father Christmas die
too?"
Vocabulary
Shilling - British monetary unit, usually in the form of a silver
coin, equivalent to about twenty-four cents of the United States
currency.
Pound - British monetary unit, also “pound sterling”, in the form of paper money, equivalent to about $4.86.
Sovereign - A gold coin of Great Britain, on which an effigy of the head of the reigning king or queen is stamped, valued at one pound sterling, or about $4.86.
Half-a-crown - A silver coin formerly used in Great Britain and worth two-and-a-half shillings (or approximately sixty cents).
Guinea - A gold coin issued in England from 1663 to 1813 and worth one pound and one shilling (or about five dollars).
Humbug - Something intended to deceive; a hoax or fraud. , Nonsense; rubbish
Father Christmas - the legendary patron saint of children, British name for Santa Claus
Spirit - Any supernatural being, good or bad; usually refers to a ghost.
Apprentice - someone who is bound to or put under the care of a master, for the purpose of instruction in a trade or business.
Miser - A covetous, grasping, mean person; esp., one having wealth, who lives miserably for the sake of saving and increasing his hoard.
(Vocabulary definitions and currency
equivalents courtesy of dictionary.com)
Discussions and activities
for all ages
Discuss other Christmas stories you know. How are they different
from Scrooge? How are they similar?
Discuss your family’s Christmas traditions. How are they different from those presented in Scrooge?
The first Christmas card appeared in the 1840’s. Design or create a Christmas card to send to your family, expressing in it your thanks for all the wonderful gifts they have given you through their love.
Do you believe in ghosts? Why or why not? How do the ghosts in Scrooge! differ from the ghosts you have seen in movies? What is the difference between the three ghosts? Is one more believable than the others?
Ask them to rewrite the story of Tiny Tim from his point of view. What was daily life like for him? What did London look like? Sound like? Smell like? What challenges did any young person face on the streets of London? What further challenges would face a physically challenged individual? What sorts of dangers lurked in the city?
This story is also the source of many
sayings and short speeches that we currently use to express certain
ideas. Examine the following quotes from Scrooge! and from the
original story (or find some of your own) and briefly explain
what we mean when we use them.
1. “Bah, humbug!” - Ebenezer Scrooge
2. “God bless us everyone!” - Tiny Tim
3. “I wear the chains I forged in life. I made it link by
link and yard by yard while on earth, and now I can never be rid
of it!” - Jacob Marley's Ghost
4. “Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business:
charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence were all my business.
The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive
ocean of my business !” - Jacob Marley's Ghost
5. “How shall I ever understand this world? There is nothing
on which it is so hard as poverty, and there is nothing it condemns
with such severity as the pursuit of wealth.” - Young Ebenezer
Scrooge
6. “I will honor Christmas with my heart, and try to keep
it all the year. I will live in the Past, Present, and the Future.
The Spirit of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut
out the lessons they teach....” - Ebenezer Scrooge on Christmas
morning
Have your students discuss the effect
of the play on them. Do they feel compelled to act on what they
feel? Do they find the responses above appropriate or meaningful?
Have your students re-write an event in their own lives that they
would do differently if they were given a second chance.
Study Question for Older
Students
1. In what way is A Christmas Carol an allegory? What are the
symbolic meanings of the main characters?
2. How does the time scheme of A Christmas Carol function? Why might Dickens have chosen to structure his book in this way?
3. What role does social criticism play in A Christmas Carol? To what extent is the story a social commentary?
4. How is the holiday of Christmas portrayed in the story? (Think of the various aspects of the holiday.) In what way does A Christmas Carol help to define the modern idea of Christmas?
5. Compare and contrast the three spirits who visit Scrooge. What are their main similarities? What are their main differences? Do their differences have any thematic significance? (Why, for instance, do they look and dress so differently?)
6. Think about the story's narrator and about the way Dickens chooses to tell his tale. What role does humor play in the narration? How do the comic aspects of A Christmas Carol interact with and support the moral and ghost-story aspects? How does Dickens blend comedy and horror?
7. How is wealth treated in the story? Is it a sign of moral corruption and greed, or does Dickens offer a more complex assessment?
(All suggested activities can be adapted
for study of either the musical play Scrooge! or the story A Christmas
Carol.)