The Alliance Theatre is producing a new adaptation of their holiday classic “A Christmas Carol,” one that can be safely enjoyed from the comfort of your car. This year’s version called, “A Christmas Carol: The Live Radio Play,” is staged as a live interactive Drive-In experience.
Co-adapter and director Leora Morris says of the drive-in format, “It feels very sacred to offer audiences a space to come together and to reconnect to a tradition, and perhaps even more importantly, to each other. A radio play allows us to use our voices in a way that’s very intimate; it will feel like the cast is right in the car with you.”
The production is a throwback to older times in more ways than just being a drive-in. The play’s sound design is a call back to old radio story programs, with a strong emphasis on sound effects and sound design.
“A Christmas Carol: The Live Radio Play” runs through Dec. 23, at the Summerhill parking lot adjacent to Georgia State University’s Center Parc Credit Union Stadium, and can also be streamed online.
Morris, along with fellow co-Adapter and sound designer Ben Coleman joined “City Lights” host Lois Reitzes for a conversation about the production.
Interview Highlights:
Morris on why they chose a drive-in format:
“We wanted to create an event that really foregrounded people’s voices as a way to feel intimately connected to the performers. And that asked people to really tune in with their ears to the experiences they were having within their own car and with the people in their car and to transform their relationship to this space that…And so how could we make sacred and make magical that space and put the focus there. We really wanted to put the emphasis on the sonic experience that we were creating.”
On the power of human connection:
“There are moments in the show where we ask people to take a look at their windows and see who’s next to them because we haven’t really had the opportunity to see a lot of folks that aren’t inside our bubbles. And it feels like such a gift to be able to turn to a car full of strangers next to you and wave and smile and express gratitude for human beings. And especially because, as Ben described in our rediscovery of the story of Dickens, we’ve come to understand the story as one of a man who’s chosen to disconnect from other human beings and who discovers the power of connection. And so we wanted to create that experience for our audience as well an opportunity to connect in a moment where everything has been taking us apart from each other.”
Coleman on how they will be creating different sound effects:
“The great thing about this is you just grab whatever does the job best. So he’s performing on vegetables, and we’re getting fresh produce for him every day. A box of graham cracker crumbs makes excellent footsteps in snow if you squeeze it right up to the microphone. And we also have some really performative large scale items that have been used in radio history for these things. We had the props department making all kinds of large strange hand-cranked devices to try and recreate wouldn’t wheels on cobblestones. And he also has a whole range of different flooring so that he can walk for all the characters and have different qualities of footsteps and things like that. It’s really fun, and without the screen without the visual aspect, there’s so much interesting work you can do with suggesting those places and people.”
