Each holiday season, the Hippodrome runs not one but two shows in repertory. While this year marks the 38th year of “A Christmas Carol,” a new adaptation of the play that premiered last year is back by popular demand. The Hipp will also debut the world premiere of “The Snow Queen,” based on the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale that also inspired Disney’s “Frozen.”
Holiday Preparations
Preparations for the holiday season begin nearly a year beforehand during the play selection process. With its thrust stage and limited backstage space, the Hippodrome has very specific requirements for the types of shows it can produce.
Artistic Director Lauren Warhol Caldwell chose to produce the adaptation of “A Christmas Carol” that debuted last year at the Hipp because it resonated with audiences. For the accompanying show, Caldwell commissioned University of Florida Associate Professor Charlie Mitchell to write an adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Snow Queen.”
Stephanie Lynge, the Hippodrome’s artistic associate, said, “Lauren Caldwell’s collaboration with Charlie Mitchell fulfills a lifelong dream of Lauren’s to produce an adaptation of ‘The Snow Queen.’”
A Christmas Carol
“A Christmas Carol” is a holiday tradition many families look forward to each year. Some elements of the show remain the same; however, the new adaptation by Janet Allard and Michael Bigelow Dixon that debuted last year contains exciting new changes that will tantalize long-time audience members.
Rusty Salling, who has appeared in every production of “A Christmas Carol” and is Gainesville’s iconic Ebenezer Scrooge, will be taking this year off after fighting a battle with cancer earlier this year.
“I will greatly miss performing in this production, which I love,” Salling said. “Though I’ve won my battle, I’ve not yet recovered enough stamina to do the show justice, but in the words of the Terminator, ‘I’ll be back!’”
This year, former Jacob Marley actor and Hippodrome Company member Gregg Jones will step into the role.
Managing Director Jessica Hurov loves seeing all of the child actors in the building and the school buses lined up outside the Hippodrome for the weekday matinees.
“The building is packed at Christmas,” she said. “Last year, we had children from 14 different counties come to see ‘A Christmas Carol.’”
During cast talk-backs, the main question directed toward the child actors is: “How did you get out of school to do this?”
Resli Ward will play Tiny Tim for the second year in a row.
“Scheduling is the No. 1 challenge for her and our family,” said Resli’s father, Harvey Ward. “But, working in professional theater as a child is invaluable experience. It confirmed for her that she wants to do this as a career.”
The Snow Queen
Charlie Mitchell, who earned his Master of Fine Arts in playwriting at Boston University, began the process of writing “The Snow Queen” by asking the question: “What is this story really about at its core?” The answer: friendship. Then, he crafted an adaptation he believes will appeal to modern audiences.
As beloved as Disney’s Frozen is, the Hippodrome’s adaptation of “The Snow Queen” is quite different.
“This story is very much about relationships through the lens of a fairy tale,” Mitchell said. “It’s about love, loss, hiding from the world and rejoining the world.”
Karl (David Patrick Ford), a failed writer, moves into an apartment next to Astrid (Stephanie Lynge), a single mom, and they begin dating. In order to charm Astrid’s daughter, Gerta (Sami Gresham), Karl tells her the story of the snow queen. The play begins in the modern day real world but moves into the fantasy world as Karl tells the story.
The process of writing the play began in the summer of 2015. Once he had a working draft, Mitchell hosted a reading of the play with several actors.
“You really don’t know until it comes out of someone’s mouth if it’s any good or not,” Mitchell said. He continued working on rewrites afterward.
“Whenever I got lost,” Mitchell explained, “I would just go back to the original story and find what appealed to me.”
Mitchell is also set to direct the show. Since he regularly directs shows at UF, he has previously worked with the majority of the cast members.
“Most of the actors already know my directing shorthand,” Mitchell said. “I think this show will be fun for the actors and ultimately the audience.”
David Patrick Ford, who recently played Black Stache in “Peter and the Starcatcher,” is one of those actors.
“In Peter, Stache directly tells us what really drives him,” Ford said. “With Karl, it is nuanced and subtle. You will learn it by his actions and his emotions.”
Ford believes the story is beautifully told.
“Fairy tales are parables,” he said. “They are meant to tell us something. Often, really good fairy tales have little details within them that have huge ramifications in the real world.”
He continued with saying that a really good adaptation speaks to a modern audience and asks, “Do you see yourself in this story now?”
Running Two Shows in Rep
Both “A Christmas Carol” and “Snow Queen” will run in repertory. Each morning, school children arrive in buses to watch “A Christmas Carol.” Then, once the show is over, the tech crew will strike, or remove, the set for the morning matinee and set the stage for evening performances of “The Snow Queen.”
“We have to be very creative in how we tell stories,” Stephanie Lynge said. “When we have two shows running, we have to be even more creative in fully telling those stories yet still using the same lighting grid and the same storage space for sets.”
The set of each show must be movable; however, the elements must work together for this backstage dance to really work. The set for “A Christmas Carol” has essentially remained the same for most of the 38 years of the show’s run while the set for “The Snow Queen,” designed by Mihai Ciupe, is unique to the show.
“’The Snow Queen’ is one of the most ambitious holiday shows we’ve ever paired with “A Christmas Carol,’” said Hurov.
The Hippodrome never shies away from a challenge, and the challenges of running “A Christmas Carol” and “The Snow Queen” together during this holiday season will be well worth the efforts of the production team and actors.