playbill vip

A Christmas Carol—which version? That was the question that started me on the journey to this production, and my answer is now onstage—a version that honors the traditions of storytelling, the richness of Dickens’ language, and the city of South Bend and its people.

It took a lot of work to get here, and it has been a truly collaborative process. The ideas I brought to the first meeting were supplemented and brought to life by David’s writing. Artistic Director Mark Abram-Copenhaver asked the hard questions that brought things into focus. The actors, both those on stage and those who helped with early readings, had to let go of preconceptions and give voice to the words. These voices helped David and me tighten and clarify the storytelling.

A Christmas Carol is an old story, but it is also a new play—a play that we have been crafting for more than 15 months, and which we are now very excited to share with you.

Kevin Dreyer

Director

So, we wanted a new stage adaptation of Dickens' timeless classic, A Christmas Carol—our own version. We wanted it to have some local flavor and a tie to the rich history of South Bend in this 150th year of our city. We wanted it to stay true to the strong fabric of Dickens' language, plot and characters, but to interweave threads of experience from the lives and events that have helped make South Bend the strong and colorful tapestry of communty life that it is and continues to become.

What more memorable icon in our city's history than that of Studebaker—the company, the cars, and the people who made them? It's hard to live in South Bend without knowing the name, if not some version of the history of Studebaker. The name is etched on our streets, our schools, our museums, and some might say on the very spirit of the city.

And so now, we humbly borrow a few fibers from the final days of Studebaker to knit into our story. In doing so, it is not our purpose to factually document the history of events, but to fancifully depict a few people who were affected by the events—people who are still with us, if only in spirit. And perhaps to let them, if only for a short time, share this space of light and shadow with the spirits of Mister Dickens' own fancy. Thank you Mark and Kevin for the opportunity to collaborate on this project, and thank you, Charles Dickens.

David Chudzynski

Playwright