The annual Thanksgiving Day celebration has passed, and my attention naturally turns to the next event on my calendar– The Gospel According to Scrooge. This year celebrates Kingwood Church’s twenty-ninth edition of the annual Christmas production. I have been honored to play the part of old Ebenezer Scrooge in all but two of those years, and still look forward to it like a schoolboy just waiting’ for Father Christmas. So it’s time for me to rehearse my lines and polish my British accent, which I won’t lose until well into January. Once it takes over my brain, it’s difficult to simply switch it off after the final performance.
Whether you’ve ever seen the performance or not, you’re probably familiar with the 1843 novella by Charles Dickens on which our adaptation is based. When one hears the name Ebenezer Scrooge, the first thing that comes to mind is usually– “Bah, Humbug.” If you’ll indulge me, let me give you some history behind the 173 year-old Dickens story, the Scrooge character, and his obnoxious trademark phrase.
