David Williamson

Tiny Tim Lives!| “God bless us, every one.” So says Maria Dunn.

DETAILS

Christmas Carol Project
Winspear Centre
Saturday, December 27 - Saturday, December 27

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The Christmas Carol Project
Featuring Bill Bourne as Ebenezer Scrooge, Maria Dunn as Tiny Tim, and Tom Roschkov as Bob Cratchit. Winspear Centre (#4 Churchill Square). Dec. 27 (8pm). Tickets: $27-$32, available at the Winspear box office (428-1414).

There are many differences between The Christmas Carol Project and my Grade 3 Christmas project. For example, mine was to write a carol based on a nativity scene that I made. The scene was made out of GI Joes covered with fake blood; my carol described the carnage very well as I sang it with sound effects. My Grade 3 teacher was deeply offended and made me redo the entire project. I barely passed on the second try.

This Christmas Carol Project, thankfully, is nothing like mine. This Carol is a professional ensemble of the highest quality, and in 2007 it won the Alberta Film and Television Awards’ “Rosie” for Best Musical or Variety Special. It has been aired on a variety of television stations and is still gets trotted out every year on Access TV. Also, It was twice been a critics’ picked by the Toronto Star and The Globe and Mail as a must-see Christmas special.

My Christmas carol project got me a stern lecture and a lifetime of animosity towards GI Joes. As you can see, they are two completely different ideas. With that in mind, how was the better of the two ideas conceived?

“I was in the Grant MacEwan Arts Administration program and realized what a great number of wonderful musicians there were in Edmonton,” recalls producer and originator John Armstrong. “I thought it would be great to showcase them all in one production. I was watching the old Alistair Sim version of A Christmas Carol and thought there was the vehicle. There were so many great character parts in it. There are not many stories that have that many characters with such prevalent roles in the story. I sat on it for a while until I started discussing it with my buddy Tom Roschkov, who I’ve played with in a number of bands over the years, and he said that it was a great idea and that we should do it. So he got talked into being Bob Cratchit.”

This year for the first time the Project will be held at Winspear Centre, where the audience will be treated to not only the aural splendor of the event, but a few ocular treats as well. “Visually we keep it fairly simple,” Armstrong said. “There are costumes and we are going to have the band set up on some nice risers so there will be a bit of height. We also have a new light guy working with us this year. So we are going to see what we can get away with in the Winspear. I think it’s a little more attuned to lighting up the symphony as opposed to a theatrical kind of thing. The best thing about the Winspear is that this will be the best-sounding Christmas Carol Project.”

Unlike my project, this Carol doesn’t begin with my version of the baby Jesus loading his shotgun.

“We start the show with a song circle by the singer/songwriters in the band and they change that up every year,” Armstrong explains. “They’ll generally feature a song off their new release in the song circle. Maria Dunn has an amazing new album out, as does Kevin Cook. That’s actually around the same time that a couple of our cast members have a competition for the gaudiest Hawaiian shirt.

“We have people who claim they come back every single year,” Armstrong continues. “I thought I was the only one to see it every time. There certainly are people who consider it to be part of their Christmas tradition now here in Edmonton. It’s like one of the best eight-piece bands you’ll ever see.”