Dick Boyd

Tami Kargle

Cultural Event

December 22nd will be a sad day for me. I will miss, for only the second time in 14 years, one of my favorite holiday traditions. The Omaha Community Playhouse, host to the acting debuts of Henry Fonda, Dorothy McGuire and Dorothy Brando (mother of Marlon Brando), and the largest facility of its kind in size and membership, in the US, will end its 29th annual production of Charles Dickens' classic story, A Christmas Carol.

Over the years this play has become for me, the invocation of the Christmas Spirit, the commencement ceremony for the Christmas season. Dick Boyd, AKA Ebenezer Scrooge, who has not yet needed an understudy in 29 years and over 600 performances, gives a performance so powerful and moving, it touches me to the depths of my soul. He is supported by a 'family' of actors that return year after year. Every year as I waited for the play to begin, I eagerly read through the program just to see who was back. Bob Snipp has become synonymous with Christmas Present. Many of the youngsters who started in the Children's Ensemble have come back, a little older of course, to play a Cratchit child, then become part of the adult cast as their own kids join the Children's Ensemble. "Actually over the past twenty-five years, it seems to me the recasting of Carol has not been so much a casting process as it has been a family reunion." (Dick Boyd, The Promoter, 2001)

It is the unique devotion of this 'family' that gives this 18th century masques style production its awe inspiring power. The messages of each and every character of this pleasant ghost story come through the profound performances. The music and carols were hand picked by Charles Jones, the director who adapted the script for this particular version, including 'Boar's Head, Gloucester Wassail, and Greensleeves. One carol in particular stands out in my memories. 6 festively dressed carolers, 3 men, 3 women, gathered around a street lamp as the only light on stage, sing Coventry Carol. The haunting melody washes over me like grace.

I would forsake that