How a 13-year-old re-envisioned A Christmas Carol
San Francisco actor and playwright Katherine (Kate) Gargiulo added a kid-driven parallel plot to the holiday classic now in production at Young Performers Theatre.
How to adapt Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol for the stage in a fresh and interesting way that appeals to kids, while staying true to the original story?
The question is especially tricky if the adaptation is to be performed by child and teen actors. Thirteen-year-old San Francisco actor and playwright Katherine (Kate) Gargiulo, in taking up the task for Young Performers Theatre (YPT), had to strike a balance, knowing that adults with children and grandchildren in tow would likely expect a familiar story they’d grown up cherishing. “So, I wanted to keep it in tradition enough,” she said, “but I also wanted to add a new spin, from a kids’ point of view,” with more “accessible” language because, for young ears, some of the original text can be “confusing to listen to.”
It’s a safe bet that more people know Dickens’ timeless story from having seen stage and film adaptations than from reading the original novella, published in 1843. It’s practically a sacred text, having almost invented Christmas in the public imagination — popularizing the standard greeting, “Merry Christmas,” for example, and instilling the idea of the season as a time of feasting, jollity and heartwarming goodwill when people extended kindness and generosity to the less fortunate. Adaptations have a way of straying further from the original text over time, but almost two centuries on, audiences still expect a certain deference to the traditional narrative, no matter what. Crafting a compelling adaptation that’s in keeping with the times without too much tampering, is no small feat.
A scene from a rehearsal of YPT’s A Christmas Carol
photo by Graham Button
Actor and playwright Kate Gargiulo
In reimagining the story, Kate said, “I wanted to have A Christmas Carol be more geared towards young kids, not only because this is a story that all families should be able to enjoy, but also I think it’s good just to introduce younger kids to more classical works.”
Her adaptation, running Dec. 6 – 14 at YPT (Building D, 3rd floor, Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture), continues the company’s post-pandemic emphasis on presenting new works written or adapted by YPT alumni and current participants. Earlier this year, Kate appeared in the title role of YPT’s production of Nova Goes Below, written and adapted by YPT alum Emily Cronan.
Kate didn’t grow up with A Christmas Carol as part of her family tradition. “Every year, since I was around two years old, my mom and I would always go to The Nutcracker,” she said. Her first encounter with A Christmas Carol was in 2023, at American Conservatory Theatre (ACT) in San Francisco. “It was really well done,” she recalled. “The costumes were beautiful.”
It made her want to audition for a role in ACT’s 2024 production of A Christmas Carol. She was already in ACT’s Young Conservatory, acting in small ensemble productions. She made callbacks for A Christmas Carol but didn’t get chosen for a part. “I was devastated.”
“Both of Kate’s parents are entrepreneurs, so she’d grown up with the idea that ‘if you want to create something, you can do it. So, I was just like, why don’t I write it?’”
She figured she’d have another shot in 2025. Then ACT decided to take a break from its annual presentation of the holiday classic.
From disappointment came inspiration. Both of Kate’s parents are entrepreneurs, so she’d grown up with the idea that “if you want to create something, you can do it. So, I was just like, why don’t I write it?”
She got to thinking about some of the story’s minor characters. In the novella, Bob and Emily Cratchit’s crippled son Tiny Tim has one of the most famous lines, “God bless us, every one!”, but siblings Martha, Belinda and Peter, along with two smaller, unnamed Cratchit children (a boy and a girl), speak little compared to the adult characters. “I thought, ‘Well, that’s not fair because they must be interesting people,’” said Kate.
In her version, Kate gives Tiny Tim a new sister, Clara, while leaving out his other siblings in favor of four new young characters. Eleanor, played by Kate, and her sister Willa, along with another set of sisters, Elizabeth and Charlotte, join an entirely new parallel plot to help make a Christmas dream come true for the impoverished Cratchits, while the ghosts perform their traditional role of opening Ebenezer Scrooge’s eyes to the dire consequences of his indifference and greed. The audience sees the story anew through the eyes of the children.
“I always love reading books or stories where there’s a double plot that ends up converging,” said Kate, who not only invented new characters, scenes and dialogue but also significantly condensed the original story.
“Kate’s version empowers the children to actively help their friends the Cratchits,” said YPT Executive Artistic Director Stephanie Holmes, who didn’t know about Kate’s script until after she wrote it. “They work unknowingly with the ghosts, and Scrooge realizes that our past informs our present and future.”
As Kate has Tiny Tim observe: Scrooge “acts like a mean man, because he’s hurting inside, and all that hurt is stopping the good in him from coming out.”
“I think it’s a wonderful thing to point out,” said Stephanie, “because this is something we talk about with characters all the time. What is it that’s happened in their life to lead them to be the way they are at this moment we’re meeting them? Every decision, every experience influences who we are in this moment.”
Stephanie, who directs YPT’s A Christmas Carol, came up with the idea of depicting Scrooge’s past in a gritty video. It’s projected onto the wall behind the stage, while “grown-up” Scrooge looks on. In the video, Stephanie’s partner, Caleb Cabrera, plays Scrooge’s father. He brings young Scrooge, played by a different actor than grown-up Scrooge, to school.
“My father was an old, selfish, grumpy man,” grown-up Scrooge tells the Ghosts of Christmas Past, “and he left me at school during Christmas so, so many times. Is this one of them?”
The production unfolds at a brisk pace, compressing 13 scenes into a runtime of about 30 minutes (not counting intermission). The set changes and transitions, all handled by the players without help from stagehands, are a choreographed, precision marvel. Instead of blackouts between scenes, the goings-on are visible, bathed in blue light. “Everybody sees the race on stage of moving stuff,” said Stephanie, “but there’s also kids running to the dressing rooms to change quickly. I want the audience to be able to see how hard they’re working and what they're doing.”
The set, designed and built by Stephanie and Caleb, is sparse but highly efficient, with key pieces on wheels. Sets of tall pane windows are turned around, indicating if a scene is inside or outside. Turn Scrooge’s bed around, and it’s a bookcase. With the right lighting, according to Stephanie, less can be more when it comes to set design. She credits the talented high school volunteers responsible for the production’s technical direction and lighting design, Cedar Wara and Tobias Hochstetler, with choices that “really influence the moods and suggest the atmosphere.” Her eldest son, Oliver Holmes, handled the sound design.—Graham Button
Charlotte, Willa and Tiny Tim in YPT’s take on Dickens’ timeless holiday story.
Photo by Graham Button