About the Play:

A Christmas Carol is a full-length drama by Paul Sills. This heartwarming holiday tale for all ages follows the life of Scrooge, a miserly elderly man rigid with resentment, who finds his loving heart by way of the Christmas spirit. Improvisation legend Paul Sills adapted this Christmas play from the classic tale by Charles Dickens. Especially recommended for high school and community theatre productions.

A Christmas Carol a timeless story of joyful redemption written by Charles Dickens and adapted for the stage by Paul Sills, the master of improvisation, original director of Second City, and creator of Story Theater. A Christmas Carol is told in the Story Theater style, which means the actors tell the story to the audience through narration while also acting out the scenes. It was used by Sills as a way to condense Dickens' original work into a shorter format. This heartwarming holiday tale for all ages follows the life of Ebenezer Scrooge, who we meet at the height of his wealth and success. Years of miserliness has turned him into a bitter and greedy old man. The only companion Scrooge has, apart from his tired meek servant, Bob Cratchit, is his cold dark spirit. That is, however, until the spirit world, led by his former business partner, makes him reconcile who he is with where he came from and where he is destined to go. Actors break from scenes to address the audience directly with observations from the perspective of their characters.

Included as well are some of the exercises devised for Story Theater by Viola Spolin, renowned for her work with games and improvisation and whose best-selling text has become the definitive guide to improvisational practice.

A Christmas Carol premiered in 1994 at the Door Community Auditorium in Fish Creek, Wisconsin, which led to the creation of the Paul Sills Community Theater, an ensemble of core performers who annually produce Story Theater performances at the Auditorium. Ideal for any high school or community theatre group looking for something amusing and "different."

Cast: flexible, minimum of 22 players

"In editing A Christmas Carol for the stage, I tried to stay with what Dickens the storyteller wanted us to hear. At no time did I dramatize a scene but always kept to his narrative, only eliminating the occasional digression. For Dickens has something to say to us but knows that before we can hear him we must come to heartbreak and he brings it about." — Paul Sills

About the Playwright:

Paul Sills (1927-2008) was an American director and improvisation teacher. He is best known as one of the founders of the improvisational comedy group The Second City, which has turned out some of America's best-known comedians. Sills was inspired by his late mother, Viola Spolin, who created hundreds of improvisational games used to train generations of actors. Paul Sills followed in her footsteps and was known as a guru of improvisation.