Christmas in the City - American Conservatory Theatre's A Christmas Carol

American Conservatory Theatre's (A.C.T.) live stage production of Charles Dickens' The Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story of Christmas is also another San Francisco Bay Area holiday tradition that I try to do every Christmas season. Mijo and I have been watching this the past years but this year he said he needed a rest. I had a good laugh after hearing this from him since he is the one who introduced me to see this show years ago. 

Anyway, Dinah (and her friend who is also named Dinah) and Karen went with me this year. A.C.T. added changes to the production and made the performance an even more festive treat! 

This year I noticed a few changes to the show. First, the props are bigger, larger than life and more festive. Second, I noticed that they added more short songs which hightened my Christmas holiday mood even more. The first ghost is much bigger than the previous years'. I liked the addition of funny songs by the Spanish onions, Turkish figs and the French Plums of the Christmas Present in the 2nd Act. As always, I enjoyed the festive dancing in Mr. Fezziwig's Warehouse at the end of the 1st Act. The past years, we were either seated in the Orchestra which is too close so we were looking up; or at the Balcony which is too high so we were always looking down. This year, my good friend Dinah got us Mezzanine seats which I like the best. The view of the stage is just right.  Taking photographs is not allowed during the performane. I hope A.C.T. would not mind because I took this photo at the very end of the show, during the acknowledgement and before the curtain closed. 

As always, the actors and actresses gave a great solid performance. Ebenezer Scrooge was played by local actor James Carpenter. The Ghost of the Christmas Past was played by Rebekah Brockman. Omoza Idehenre as the Ghost of the Christmas Present.
This year, the Christmas Carol ran from Dec 1 through 24, 2012.

Here is a snippet video of A.C.T.'s The Christmas Carol on YouTube.


See you next year Scrooge!  Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year everyone!

~rl