The ghost of Christmas Past will be more prevalent than ever on one Toledo stage this season.

For the first time in more than three decades, area audiences won’t be continuing their tradition of sitting in a theater to watch Ebenezer Scrooge be visited by three spirits who try to help him rediscover the meaning of Christmas. Nor will spectators gather in-person to see their neighbors, area children, or fellow community members dance or sing classic Christmas songs in the course of bringing to life the Toledo Repertoire Theatre’s time-honored story of A Christmas Carol.

But, even amid a pandemic, the veteran company has found a way to have the show go on.

Originally eight small, live performances were scheduled, but recent spikes in coronavirus cases and a stay-at-home advisory from the Toledo-Lucas County Health Department prompted the Rep to cancel those plans. 

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Determined to keep the show’s tradition alive with a 35th annual production, the Rep will instead offer virtual on-demand streaming of this year’s show — with a twist. Aided by technology, the tale of Scrooge and his Christmas Eve conversion will also pay tribute to past Rep productions.

Viewers will see a show that appears much like any other of the Rep’s Christmas Carol production, with the usual cast of characters, large musical numbers, and of course, the “God bless us, everyone,” feel-good line at the end. Longtime cast members will also return to reprise their roles, including Paul Causman, who will mark his 18th year portraying Scrooge. 

But when it comes time for the scenes that entail large ensembles or dance and musical numbers, it will be as if the Ghost of Christmas Carols Past is taking viewers on a journey through the ages — as music from the 2019 chorus is heard while performance footage plays of those same acts from shows staged in the late 1980s through 2019.

“The idea was, let's put together something that could tell the Toledo Rep’s story of A Christmas Carol, but at the same time also provide a nostalgic look back at all the years of the Toledo Rep’s A Christmas Carol that has literally involved hundreds of people who have been in it in the past,”  Causman said, “It’s interesting for anyone to see how the show has changed since its inception in the 1980s, but it’s also interesting for those who want to look back and see themselves, their friends, the different sets that have been used over the years, and the different theaters where it has appeared.” 

Changes to A Christmas Carol are nothing new, although a virtual-only viewing certainly is. The Rep’s Bonnie Herrmann said they’ve managed to keep the show relevant by making small changes each year, particularly as different directors took turns at the helm. Some years costumes would be changed or entire dance numbers added. At one time the show also included a narrator. One year the narrator become an even larger role of Charles Dickens himself telling parts of the story.

With this year’s virtual show, viewers will see Causman also as the narrator — appearing intermittently in black-and-white scenes as Scrooge telling parts of the Christmas Carol tale.

During the shows, Causman and other main cast members were to perform scenes live that required few of them to be on stage at the same time. The lights would then go down and footage from the past shows would play during the large-ensemble portions. 

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After the county health department issued its stay stay-at-home advisory in November, Herrmann said the Rep’s board voted to nix the live performances little more than two weeks before the first show. 

“It was a very complex piece and it was a shame that we got up to only a couple of weeks before we were to enter into our tech rehearsals,” Causman said. “Obviously, after the stay-at-home advisory, we weren’t going to then ask people to be coming out to see live performances, even if it was going to be only a couple of people on stage.”

To help celebrate the 35th anniversary of the show, the Rep is also selling commemorative DVDs for $35 that will be available for delivery or pickup starting Dec. 19 and will include additional footage from past shows and come with a complimentary gift bag. Other items are also being sold on the Rep’s website including commemorative Christmas Carol ornaments for $5, pint glasses for $12 each or 2 for $20 (buying four will include an ornament), as well as apparel with prices ranging from $20-35.

Changes to the show and commemoratory items aside, Causman said it was important to the Rep board and staff to keep the holiday tradition alive. 

“We have audience members that come to this show and have come to this show every year since the 1980s – it’s a part of their Christmas tradition and we have a responsibility to be caretakers of the Rep's Christmas Carol," Causman said. “Like other things we revisit at Christmas — The Nutcracker, putting up a Christmas tree, the Christmas carols that we listen to on the radio — they are all a part of the tradition of Christmas and you revisit those every year not just because they are tradition, but because they evoke the meaning of the holiday to you." 

First Published December 2, 2020, 11:32 p.m.