December, 2025

Jed Diamond, Clarence Brown Theatre, 2025

When I was in 6th grade a neighborhood lady staged an abridged version of A Christmas Carol with a bunch of local kids. I played Scrooge. I caught pneumonia just after the auditions and was in bed for 2 weeks, but I used the time to memorize the play; so when the Ghost of Christmas Past forgot a line during our performance, I cued her. Fast forward to 1998. I was working at Milwaukee Rep and Joe Hanreddy and I began writing our adaptation. He wrote Act 1, I wrote Act 2 and we passed them back and forth. I drew on memories of neighborhood caroling, church and my high school chorus for the carols. Joe and I co-directed the premiere, Jim Pickering played Scrooge and our version ran in the Pabst Theatre for 18 Christmases.

Jonathon Smoots as Christmas Present & Jim Pickering as Scrooge, Milwaukee Rep at the Pabst Theatre, 2010

Fast forward to 2007. I was invited to Knoxville to stage a production at Clarence Brown Theatre. Jed Diamond played Scrooge. It went so well that they're still mounting it (after trying other versions and coming back to ours). Fast forward to last week. My Christmas gift to myself was a trip to Knoxville with my wife to see it again, after 14 years. It’s a newer production but still our script, and Jed Diamond was back as Scrooge. A full circle moment.

Anquanizia Hall as Christmas Present Jed Diamond as Scrooge, Clarence Brown Theatre, 2025

But there’s one more chapter here. Rewind to 2006. A staged reading at Fox Lake Correctional Institute in Dodge County, Wisconsin. Twice a week for several months I drove through Horicon Marsh, then passed through buzzing gates and metal detectors to rehearse with 18 inmates who wanted to do something special. I adapted our script, cutting songs, scenes and characters and adding a street-talking grave-digger narrator and a Spanish-speaking sidekick for the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. Between my visits they rehearsed with a reading teacher. They were dedicated, excited and bit nervous.

Emmit Groce Jr as Scrooge, A Fox Lake Carol, 2006

Finally, one December afternoon, they stood on the prison chapel dais behind music stands and performed for their community: inmates, guards, the warden and some visitors. Emmit Groce Jr played Scrooge. And of all the Christmas Carols I've been part of, that one might have meant the most. Because it’s about redemption. And realizing that there’s no such thing as “surplus population.” Thank you, Charles Dickens.