Written by Blake Mathews
Though the alumni had long since gone home and the queen had hung up her dress, it was still Homecoming on the Benson stage Monday night as the cast and crew of “Scrooge” put on a free encore performance of the musical.
The Homecoming musical traditionally has two performances during Homecoming weekend and a children’s matinee in the middle of the week. However, with the Christian College Presidents Conference coming to Harding Nov. 9, President David Burks said he saw an opportunity to share the acclaimed performance with his presidential peers. After the end of the first show Oct. 30, Burks went backstage and asked the cast and crew to give an encore performance more than a week after the end of Homecoming.
The decision was ultimately up to musical director Robin Miller, who said he watched the performers, musicians and technicians “start to jump up and down a little bit” as Burks made his proposal. Miller agreed and signed the cast and crew on for one more performance.
“When you do the kind of work that we do and you only get two full run-throughs of the show with an audience, it almost feels anticlimactic,” he said.
Although the Friday and Saturday shows drew thousands of people to the Benson auditorium, Miller said two nights was hardly enough time for the actors to get comfortable in front of an audience.
“The way we have been, it’s been: ‘Hi, welcome to opening night.’ Next night: ‘Hi, welcome to closing night,'” he said.
Alex Ritchie, who played the title role of Scrooge, joined several cast members in echoing Miller’s sentiment. The road to opening night can seem long and arduous, Ritchie said, with hours of each week invested in rehearsals, “but it’s never long enough when the show actually arrives.”
Ensemble member Robert Yates said it was an “honor” to be asked for an encore, though he had hoped to start catching up on class work once Homecoming weekend had passed. Other cast members had to abandon or postpone their post-musical plans, though Miller said the conflicts were sufficiently resolved.
With the new performance scheduled, the Saturday show was no longer the final show. This fact “kind of threw off the energy,” Yates said, adding that he had to mentally “re-engage” in order to stay focused after Burks’ announcement.
The cast and crew only rehearsed twice between the end of Homecoming week and Monday night, a concession from Miller that gave the students some much-needed down time. But Ritchie said he could not fully relax knowing that he would have to become Scrooge again.
“There was this suspended kind of tension in my mind,” he said. Staying healthy and not forgetting his lines were still his responsibilities.Monday night’s performance drew a crowd big enough to pack the floor and balcony of the Benson. Ensemble member Laura Jean Jenkins said the crowd was especially responsive and encouraged her to act out, despite the fact that it was a “draining” Monday night.
“The crowd makes the show every time,” Jenkins said. “If your crowd is not giving any energy, you will lose energy.”
Jenkins said the crowd’s unique energy likely came from the free admission to the performance. The makeup of the audience was also different, as the encore had been advertised over the radio and through newspapers across White County. Burks said he wanted the free show, originally planned for the university presidents, to be a “Christmas gift to the community.”
The performance was not free for Harding, however, as expenses are incurred every time the show is run. Burks said he had planned for the losses, which were minimal since the most costly part of the production, the stage, was already set up. He even made a financial contribution towards the Scrooge cast party to thank them for the encore.
No more encores will be requested this year, Burks said. The cast of “Scrooge” now has a different task, what Ritchie called the “gradual regaining of life without the musical.” Jenkins said that homework, friendships and her position as president of Chi Kappa Rho all needed to be tended to. But the extra performance has given her a sense of “closure.” Jenkins said she had wondered what it would be like to do a third show, and now she knows.
“Most years it’s just been this ‘drop you where we picked you up’ sort of thing,” Ritchie said. The days of rest before the encore allowed him to avoid the abrupt transition and ease back into “life without the musical.”
For the build crew, who assembled the sets, the transition to post-musical life has never been abrupt. Their job will continue until the set pieces are disassembled and the Benson stage is finally back to normal.
