Interview: Jason Woods Explores Humanity of Scrooge in Solo Show

A rug, a lectern, a chair, a table, a goblet of water, a candle ... and an empty stage. With only those pieces, actor-playwright-composer Jason Woods finds new life in the classic Dickens novella, A CHRISTMAS CAROL, as a one-man performance, now in its fifth year in what has become an annual holiday event in the Jacksonville area. First staged in 2012 by A Classic Theatre at The Pioneer Barn in St. Augustine, Woods spent the previous year developing the solo work including composing his own original score and incorporating over two dozen characters (including more than a half dozen women!) from the famous holiday tale.

"It was my idea and I was terrified," recalls Woods. "I thought 'This is insane, I don't know if I can do this or not.' And that kind of gave me the impetus to do it. Well ... if I'm afraid, I need to overcome that. And I had friends encouraging me, along with the cast of another show I was doing at the time. I was inspired by Patrick Stewart's one-man version, but it was more of a reading. I listened to it ... it's that voice, and he's magnetic ... and one of the reasons you love it is - it's Patrick Stewart. But I really wanted to take the time to develop the acting side of it. I don't have any 'status' so that people would come and see it, natively I'm not from the U.K." Woods adds, with a grin, "... and I've never been in a 'Star Trek' movie."

Woods continues, "I've found with all the versions I've seen on stage and wherever, they are very 'theatrical' - Scrooge is very overt and I really wanted to tap into some humanity. Instead of the standard caricature - "Bah Humbug!" - I mean, who talks like that? Nobody. And the story was so powerful to me that I wanted to find something that was grounded in not just an attitude, but the reasons why. 'Why?' is the actor's question, I guess. Then I started finding all these reasons for Marley and all these other characters. It's been very educational."

In trimming the piece to a 90-minute performance without intermission, Woods discovered that returning to and studying the source material was the key, "I could've made it shorter, but there is language in the story that is so powerful and rich. And when I've done it, I've found so few people have actually read it. I was blown away - people would come up and talk about the language and that's what I attribute all of it to ... it's Dickens, he's a genius, and he wrote in a very cinematic way. When you see the film version or the musical, you have these broad musical numbers, you see turkey on the table, you see the ghost. But, when you're using Dickens' language, everybody in the audience sees those things, but they see them differently. I had someone come up and say 'I could taste the food,' and I thought 'OK, it's like you're reading a book.' So basically, what I think I've done is give the audience a chance to 'read' a shorter version. And I love their response to the language."

With a surfeit of A CHRISTMAS CAROL stage adaptations for audiences to enjoy each holiday, Woods muses as to why his performance might stand out, what might make his piece different from all of the others out there to choose ... what is his message?

"I don't like to be preachy - it's difficult ...," Woods replies. "I don't want to prescribe to anyone what they should feel or think. I have found some current relevance in it and, of course, that may be silly on my part because I think it's always been there. But this attitude that certain people are disposable or that certain people are 'less than' other people with means - I think that comes to mind. There's so much in it. Scrooge does not change his ways because he's afraid of dying, it's not because he looks into a grave, or anything so sensational as being in Hell or falling into casket with himself. For film, that might be effective, I don't know. But it's the lost opportunity, it's the remorse of Marley - Marley is unable to implement change for good for humans and it takes Scrooge all of these visits and putting two and two together. His capacity is very limited at first, but slowly it enlarges. He sees that 'I could have someone with me when I die. Someone could say something kind about me when I die. It's my fear that's keeping me alive.' It's all of that pain. The Ghost of Christmas Present says 'Perhaps you will learn to hold your tongue until you find out what the surplus is and where it is. Will you decide what men shall live and what men shall die? It may be in the sight of Heaven that you are more worthless and less fit to live than millions like this poor man's child.' Then the Ghost says this (and it's never in a movie), 'O God, the insect on the leaf declaring there's too much life among his hungry brethren in the dust.' Just because you're on the leaf and your brothers are down there, you don't have the right to say they have too much life. How can you say that? It's a powerful line for me. And then, of course, the children reveal as metaphors for Ignorance and Want - in the prose, Dickens underscores it just a little bit more as an image of what they are. It's supposed to be terrifying, but it's also heartbreaking."

"Frankly it taught me a lot, the more I read it and got into it." Woods adds, "Liberality of spirit, not so much generosity, not so much tied to material things. The word 'liberality' in the book - I thought about that for a long, long time. What does that mean? To walk around that way? I don't think I was before this story - I think I was more introspective and a little more focused - it's human nature. So, if it cracked a little bit of light for me to look at the world a little differently, with some more compassion, I think it did me good. But, again, all of that at the risk of sounding preachy, which I don't want to do. It has to speak to people the way it does. I want to share with people how it's changed me ..."

After a weekend of performances in Amelia Island and Ponte Vedra Beach on December 10 and 11, and a private fundraiser on December 15 at WJCT in Jacksonville, Woods will present his original one-man A CHRISTMAS CAROL in the Studio Theatre at the Thrasher-Horne Center for the Arts (www.thcenter.org) in Orange Park on Saturday night, December 17, at 8:00 p.m. For links to purchase tickets for any of the performances, along with more information on Woods and his other original works, visit www.jasonwoodsachristmascarol.com.