Thursdays at 7:30 p.m.
Fridays & Saturdays at 8 p.m.
Sundays at 2 p.m.

Special Family Matinees:
Saturdays, Dec. 8, 15 & 22 at 3 p.m.

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"Impressive … Magical Lighting … Excellent Acting … Smooth Staging"

A Fine Arts Center Holiday Tradition

The holidays are the perfect time of the year for a family reunion, so the Fine Arts Center Theatre Company is bringing together some of Colorado Springs’ best known and best loved local actors and actresses to stage the holiday classic, A Christmas Carol.

The story tells the tale of Scrooge, a businessman who makes some bad choices in life, becomes a miser and is then visited by the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future. “It is a faithful retelling of the story,” said director Susan Dawn Carson, who acted as the Baker’s Wife in the FAC production of Into the Woods last season and is a “Broadway Expatriate” having starred as Fantine in Les Miserables and Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard on the Great White Way.

“I am very lucky,” she said. “The design team is amazing. The music is beautiful. The play does have moments of darkness, but it’s darkly funny, magical and mysterious. “Plus, we have a terrific cast; our audiences will recognize many of their favorite local actors on stage.”

The lead role of Scrooge is played by the affable Bob Rais, who most recently was seen in TheatreWorks’ production of Zorro. Rais, a longtime favorite at TheatreWorks, returns to Colorado Springs after a stint as the Educational Director of the Sun Valley Performing Arts/NextStage Theater in Idaho.

Steve Emily, the Jerome family father from Brighton Beach Memoirs, tackles the pivotal role of Jacob Marley. Michael Augenstein is Bob Crachit. He has appeared on the SaGāJi Theatre stage in Little Shop of Horrors, 1940s Radio Hour and She Loves Me.

The cast also includes the 2007 Pikes Peak Art Council award winners for Best Actor and Best Actress, David Hastings for his role in Star Bar Player’s Night and Her Stars and Sally Hybl for her performance as Cinderella in the FAC production of Into the Woods. Hastings also earned the Best Actor award from the Gazette for the same role. Hastings plays three roles and Hybl is Mrs. Crachit.

Mallory and Logan Hybl, Sally’s children, are also in the cast. Mallory plays Tiny Tim, and Logan is Albert Crachit. In fact, the cast has 10 young actors, many of whom were taught by Susan Dawn Carson in the FAC Youth Rep Theatre program.

Marco Robinson, who just completed a successful run as Eugene in Brighton Beach Memoirs, will show off his talents in musical theatre as Young Scrooge, a pivotal role that propels the storyline via flashbacks and includes a lovely duet with Belle (Natalie Jensen), Scrooge’s love interest as a young man.

There are numerous versions of the Charles Dickens’ novella. The FAC is pulling out all of the stops with this musical version with a large cast (26), playing numerous parts in a true ensemble with a five-piece orchestra that features Fred Martinez playing the woodwinds for the FAC, now for his 37th season.

For this version, the world-renowned Academy Award-winning composer Michel Legrand teamed with Sheldon Harnick, one of the theatre's most celebrated Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winning librettists, and the tale of Ebenezer Scrooge's prophetic Christmas Eve is reborn. From the pages of Dickens comes this scintillating musical adaptation of the Yuletide classic that continues to touch hearts and minds the world over. This universal story is ultimately one of family and conscience, of desperation and regret and second chances.

Legrand has earned three-time Academy Awards from 16 nominations, three Grammy Awards and an Emmy for his work in scoring movies and musicals. Harnick, with writing partner Jerry Bock, earned the Pulitzer Prize for writing the book for Fiorello! and a Tony Award for Fiddler on the Roof. The duo also wrote She Loves Me, which was a big hit for the FAC Theatre Company two seasons ago.

Special Family Matinees of A Christmas Carol will show on Saturdays at 3 p.m. (Dec. 8, 15, 22). The Family Matinee is a condensed version of the show, designed for families and offered at a reduced rate.

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