The theater’s first production of “A Christmas Carol” was adapted by its resident dramaturg Jerry Patch. “I remember getting up at four in the morning in Huntington Beach during the summer to work on this adaptation,” he said. “I was trying to place myself in London in December while I was half a mile away from the beach. But one thing I’ve always said is that I think a gorilla could adapt this to stage. It’s so perfectly written by Dickens and so theatrical. All you have to do is not screw it up.”
Hal Landon Jr. played Ebenezer Scrooge in every production from 1980 through 2019. As he told Orange Coast just prior to his final bow, “That’s one of the main things that’s kept me going with Scrooge for as long as 40 years—the response of the audience. It clearly resonates with them. As it turns out, more and more I have lots of people come up to me … to tell me not just how much they enjoyed the play, but how much it means to them and how Christmas for them doesn’t start until they see ‘A Christmas Carol.’ And they’d bring their kids and, in some cases, those kids are now bringing their kids. So it definitely has an effect on people, even today.”’
John-David Keller directed the show from its opening until 2019. “Many of my favorite memories revolve around the children in the cast,” he recalled on South Coast Repertory’s blog. “I always insist that they not have their own dressing room but share with the adults, so they can really experience what it is like to be part of a production. Of course, the children are given instruction in rules of behavior that the adults are not. I remember one time asking a father about how his child was enjoying being a part of the show, and the father replied, ‘He’s having the time of his life, and his vocabulary has become quite colorful.’”
Hisa Takakuwa took over directing duties in 2021, but she has been involved with the show onstage and off for more than three decades. “The most moving things I see are the family reunions out on the terrace every year—two or three generations in their red scarves taking photos together,” she said. “Being a part of people’s holiday traditions is so beautiful. And the story always resonates but perhaps especially now—the idea that it is our relationships with others that anchor us in the world. Somebody learning to humanize themselves and understanding the impact they can have on their community—there’s kindness at the core of it. It reminds us that we are all capable of change.”
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