Cycerli Ashe, Jonathan Daly, Neil Friedman and Joseph Rebrovick, from left, in the Clarence Brown Theatre production of “A Christmas Carol.”

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Portraying Ebenezer Scrooge takes Jonathan Daly on a "wild ride" physically and emotionally while offering both the actor and his audience lessons that go beyond the theater stage.

Daly plays the lead role in "A Christmas Carol" Nov. 25-Dec. 20 at the University of Tennessee's Clarence Brown Theatre. A resident actor with the Milwaukee Repertory Theater, he's returning to a role he loves to play.

"A Christmas Carol" is based on Charles Dickens' 1843 story of how a materially rich, but emotionally impoverished, man is redeemed by ghost-chaperoned journeys into his past, present and future. The 30-member cast is directed by Edward Morgan, who earlier this season directed the theater's "The Flu Season" and has directed "A Christmas Carol" the past two years. Morgan wrote the script for the adaptation with Joseph Hanreddy, artistic director of the Milwaukee Repertory Theater, in 1997. The multilevel set was created by Washington, D.C., scenic designer Jim Kronzer, who decorated the White House this Halloween.

Portraying a character who transforms as much as Scrooge does in just a few hours is physically and emotionally fatiguing. "But it gives you so much. It's a wonderful ride … a wild ride," says Daly.

"When you are living in this literature for a couple of months out of the year, you really learn how to appreciate the generosity of spirit, and be open and available to people."

Daly hadn't played Scrooge in about six years when Morgan offered him the part. The two previously worked together on a Milwaukee production of the play. "Frankly, I really missed playing the role," he says.

Daly is a "Christmas Carol" veteran. He's been in some 15 different productions through the years. In addition to playing Scrooge half a dozen times, he's portrayed Bob Cratchit, young Scrooge's friend Dick Wilkins and both of the men who ask Scrooge to help the poor.

Daly, 55, says his portrayal of the character is different than when he first took the role at 35 or was an understudy at 25. "It's just a lot richer now. I have these personal experiences to draw on now. I have raised my family; my kids are almost grown. I have made a lot of choices in my life.

"In some ways being exposed to this piece of literature for so many years has had an effect on the way I have lived my life. You relive that story every year, and you encounter the whole idea that the choices you make in life you have to live with. And they are going to comfort you or trouble you."

"A Christmas Carol" goes beyond a feel-good message for the holidays. Dickens, whose father spent time in debtors prison, had a "real sense of social awareness that went into his work," Daly said.

"This may have started as a ghost story, but it ends up something far deeper than that. I think it's the richest, most beautiful story of redemption that I've ever been able to find in Western literature. It's really that good."

Amy McRary may be reached at 865-342-6437.

© 2009, Knoxville News Sentinel
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