During a normal day, you’d be more likely to find Brendan M. sitting off by himself somewhere, not at the center of attention among a large group of people.
“I’m a pretty quiet person,” said Brendan, a senior at Avon High School. “Usually just stick to school work or games or just hanging by myself.”
But when the curtains part and Brendan steps out onto a stage, a switch inside him flips and he finds he’s able to channel the unique energy of whatever character he happens to be portraying.
“It instantly changes,” said Brendan. “I’m able to really just put myself out there and do what I do.”
This time around, the character Brendan finds himself channeling is Ebenezer Scrooge, the miserly and miserable protagonist of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” as well as its musical stage adaptation, “Scrooge!”, which returns to Avon this weekend for the 23rd straight year.
Adapted from the 1970 film starring Albert Finney, which boasts a score composed by Leslie Bricusse and arranged and conducted by Ian Fraser, “Scrooge!” is an important fundraiser for Avon’s theater program.
Performances are scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 20 at 7 p.m. and Sunday, Nov. 21 at 2 p.m. in the High School Auditorium. General admission tickets are $10. Pre-school age children will be admitted for free. For tickets, contact Cynthia Towler at (585) 226-2455, ext. 1610.
Cast as Tiny Tim when he was in fifth grade, Brendan is exceedingly familiar with “Scrooge!”
“It was definitely intimidating because I was around all the older kids the entire time,” Brendan said of the experience. “I had a lot of fun doing it and I was like ‘I think I’ll do this some more.’”
Now, seven years later, Brendan is doing his best to imbue his portrayal of Scrooge with the anger he feels the character warrants.
“I’m trying to get that low, gruff voice and that anger out because a lot of Scrooges we’ve had - they don’t really get that anger so I’m trying to yell more or get more of a fear - like when he's scared of dying and all that,” he said.
On at least one occasion, that commitment to conveying Scrooge’s deep-seated anger has startled some of Brendan’s fellow cast members.
“The first read through, actually, there’s a line where I yell ‘Good afternoon!’ to my nephew because I keep telling him to leave,” Brendan explained. “First time I did it, a bunch of kids jumped up and were like ‘Ahh!’ So that worked.”
Joining Brendan on stage is Michael C., who portrays Scrooge’s downtrodden and eternally optimistic clerk, Bob Cratchit.
Michael’s first taste of theater came during the summer before his fourth grade year when he was cast as a lost boy in Avon’s production of “Peter Pan.”
“I loved it,” said Michael, now a senior. “It was great.”
The next year, he was cast as Prince Chulalongkorn in “The Kind and I,” a meatier, supporting role that pushed Michael to develop his acting abilities. While the musical aspect of theater has always come fairly easily for Michael - a product, perhaps, of the piano lessons he started taking in the first grade - the acting side has been more of a challenge.
“The memorization is a big thing that I have trouble with,” Michael said, “but you just have to work at it and you'll get it eventually.”
Michael said the best part of any show, but especially “Scrooge!”, is the camaraderie and sense of community a cast develops over the course of a production.
“There’s always new kids that join and you'll make a new friend every time you do a show and you'll keep up the same friendships you had last time from a show even if you don't see them that much,” he said. “It's like a big family.”
Gretta P. agreed wholeheartedly with that assessment and said it’s also rewarding to see younger students develop as actors.
“You always see the new kids coming up,” said Gretta, a junior. “It’s just kind of fun to share that community feel.”
Like Brendan, “Scrooge!” was Gretta’s first show as a fourth grader, though the acting bug first bit a while earlier when Gretta saw an Avon Central Schools production of “Robin Hood” that starred one of Gretta’s brother’s friends.
“I just thought it was a really cool thing to do and I joined it and I kind of stayed at first because my friends were there and my brother was there,” Gretta recalled. “Then I kind of just fell in love with the theater in general.”
Gretta tries to bring “a little bit of comedy” to each role - including Gretta’s upcoming turn as Tom Jenkins, a shopkeeper deep in Scrooge’s debt who leads Londoners in celebration of the latter’s death during the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come’s vision of Scrooge’s potential future.
“Tom Jenkins is the one addressing the town and dancing on Scrooge’s grave,” said Gretta. “Basically being like ‘Ding dong the witch is dead,’ but the ‘Scrooge!’ version.”
Gretta said one of the best parts of theater is the experience of inhabiting a different character, of living and breathing inside someone else’s skin - even if only for a short time.
“I find it very enjoyable because it’s not like they’re watching me, they’re watching the character I put on, which is more fun to do because you're portraying a character everyone gets to enjoy and you don't really need to worry about judgement because if they don't like that character, that’s fine,” said Gretta. “It’s not like they don’t like you, it’s just the character.”
Mikaela Mikaela said she’s taking advantage of the additional time “Scrooge!” gives to exploring the dynamics in the Cratchit family household to flesh out her role as Mrs. Cratchit and make sure the character comes across as compassionate to the audience.
“You get to see how Mrs. Cratchit is really there to care for her family,” said Mikaela, a senior. “Her song, ‘Good times,’ is really there to uplift her family in times when they’re not really feeling happy and when they’re going through tough times.”
Like many of her fellow cast members, Mikaela grew up on Avon’s “Scrooge!” and said one of the chief reasons she finds herself continually drawn to theater productions is “the family aspect of it.”
“I’ve been doing ‘Scrooge!’ since I was in fourth grade and being in that show for the first time… really sparked something in me that wanted to keep doing it over and over again,” she said. “I’ve grown up with most of these people for the past eight years of my life in theater and they're some of my closest friends.”
And while this will be Mikaela’s final “Scrooge!” experience at Avon, she’s happy to be able to give a live, in-person performance alongside her fellow cast members and said the future of the Avon theater program is nothing but bright.
“I’m just glad I get to end my last ‘Scrooge!’ on a good note with some of the best people I've worked with,” she said. “I’m excited to see all these younger kids grow into these big roles in the future and I’m happy where I am with leaving it here.”
Brendan M., who portrays Ebenezer Scrooge in Avon Central Schools' upcoming production of "Scrooge!" , is pictured above running a scene during a recent rehearsal.