For close to a decade the role of Ebenezer Scrooge in Great Lakes Theater's annual production of "A Christmas Carol" was portrayed by the same actor - Aled Davies. This holiday season however there's a new Scrooge in town as Great Lakes' company member Lynn Robert Berg takes on the lead role as everyone's favorite Christmas curmudgeon. It's a demanding job as Scrooge is onstage for nearly every scene in Charles Dickens' beloved tale. Initially he was a bit hesitant to take on the role.
"My first thought was 'I'm too young.' Not that I'm really young but I'm not quite 40," Berg said.
He thought he already knew Scrooge after watching Davies perform for 11 years while Berg played other roles including Jacob Marley.
"It wasn't until getting into the room and figuring out 'OK so I need to make a big change there," he said. "My initial reaction was 'this is going to be fun, this'll be like falling off a log.' And it so wasn't."
To gain a better understanding of Scrooge's character, Berg talked it over with director Tom Ford.
"A lot of how he expresses himself at the beginning of the play and through most of the play comes from, 'I'm not going to feel anything," he said.
So when Scrooge undergoes his legendary Christmas Eve transformation it's a challenge to portray that onstage.
Berg takes a cue from one of Scrooge's lines at the end of the play - "I don't know what to do." Those words led Berg to view him as a man overwhelmed by possibility, "he's sort of, 'I'm going to do this and I'm going to do this and I'm going to do this.' That's fun the kind of crazy man he turns into. That's a lot of fun."
"A Christmas Carol" is onstage now at Great Lakes Theater through Friday, December 23rd.
Tune in Wednesday, December 14 at 12:33 pm to hear Lynn Robert Berg on Here and Now featuring The Sound of Applause on 90.3 WCPN
Lynn Robert Berg, actor
