by Eric Jackson
It's fitting that Panama's English-speaking theater people would close out 2000 on a Dickensian note. It has been a rough economic year down here, and Charles Dickens' tales of hard times in Industrial Revolution-era England are as applicable to the 21st century as they were in the 19th. Substitute an illustrious Panamanian surname for "Scrooge" and set "A Christmas Carol" in a Panama City accounting firm and you could credibly jump another several gaps as well.
The Theatre Guild of Ancon version, however, went nowhere nearly so far afield. It's true to the original short story, but you probably won't see it elsewhere soon because Catherine Hopkins not only directed and co-produced, but also wrote an original adaptation of "A Christmas Carol" just for this show.
The top-notch re-writing for stage, which had to be done with an eye toward a small, amateur theater group's limited budget, is really the most remarkable thing about this production. This is the second time that something written by Catherine Hopkins has graced the stage in the little theater next to PTJ forensics lab, and if it's not the last, that will be one of the keys to English-speaking theater's survival and prosperity on the isthmus of Panama.
The second most remarkable thing about this Theatre Guild production is that it's a joint effort with three of Panama's better English-speaking private schools: the Balboa Academy, the International School and the Oxford International School. It's a continuation of the post-reversion pulling together of Panama's English-speaking community, and a successful one. Hopkins, Gale Celucci and the usual Theatre Guild suspects taught nearly three dozen youngsters various aspects of show business, both onstage and behind the scenes. Most of these kids will be off to school in the United States within a year or two, but there's good reason to believe that a larger portion of them will be back than have returned or will return to Panama after graduating from Balboa High. These particular students may or may not be the future of our local English-language theater, but the alliance between the Theatre Guild and the schools will ensure a stream of new actors, technicians and, ultimately, directors and producers.
Panama's professional Spanish-language theater scene is aware of this. Directors Bruce Quinn (a guild veteran) and Edwin Cedeño (who helped out with costumes in this production) have both been known to scout and recruit new talent at the venerable little theater.
The most noteworthy young talent in this show belonged to the leading lady (actually, the female lead and another minor role), Allison Smith, and to Holly Parker, who played three different roles. If either of these high school girls decide to develop their theatrical craft, they may or may not be able to make it on Broadway or in Hollywood, but there will surely be plenty of room for them on the Panamanian stage.
The usual Theatre Guild folks played to their usual standards. Ron Leggiere was a great Ebenezer Scrooge, ably supported by Todd Robberson's narration and Brendan O'Regan, Hannia Woodman and Roberto Bruno as the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future respectively.
Another important part of the adaptation, one that may not have worked in a less intimate setting, was the music. Linda Parker provided that with her violin, subtly setting moods or accenting action. It gave the little wooden theater just the right acoustic sounds, from the right times and places, to take the audience back to Victorian England.
Not intrinsically part of "A Christmas Carol," but fitting for the occasion and a noteworthy part of this event, were the Christmas carols on the theater's front porch. Those were the work of the Grupo Facetas.
The play was scheduled for but three showings, all of which sold out. Thus a couple more shows were added, and if you grabbed your copy of this newspaper early enough on the day it first hit the streets, you still have a chance to catch the last presentation, at the Theatre Guild of Ancon at 7 p.m. on December 14.
