BWW Blog: Dalton Allison - Meet the Carolers: Ebenezer Scrooge (John Patrick Cleary)

As a member of the cast of A Christmas Carol, I am able to get to know the actors that get to grace the stage beside me better than most people. In Meet the Carolers, I try to bring the actors to you, so you can know these special people like I do. This week, you get to meet John Patrick Cleary, who portrays Ebenezer Scrooge.

When did you start performing and why?

I started performing when I was about six. The show was the The Little Drummer Boy when my family lived in Louisville, Kentucky. I have fond memories of drumming on a large, painted coffee can. To the best of my memory I really enjoyed being in another world....and still do...so this is what drew me to acting. It also enabled me to overcome a speech impediment.

What has been your favorite role to play in a show?

That's a hard one to pick. This question would best be answered by genre. For tragedy I would say Torvald Helmer in A Doll's House. Musical tragi-comedy: Scrooge! and then a close runner up Barnaby in Babes in Toyland. at TGS. One part that was very challenging was the King in Ionesco's Exit the King. I also loved playing Billis in South Pacific and Gulliver in a musical version of Gulliver's Travels at Columbia University...for the whole two 1/2 hours I never left the stage.

Are you trying to keep last year's Ebenezer in mind while performing this year, or are you treating the show as a blank canvas?

I'll be doing some of the same stuff I did last year...but I will be bringing new things to the character....such as changes in delivery and perhaps emphasizing my solos in a different way.

How much of John Cleary is in Ebenezer Scrooge?

You'd have to be a little bit of a curmudgeon to take on Scrooge....but I think everyone shares in some way a rejection of group think and a natural aversion to bandwagon bias...and materialism...and false enthusiasm...especially during the holidays. Scrooge may be a symbol of thoughtless selfishness...we're seeing more of that in the world...no thanks to market driven values that seem to have colonized people's life worlds. If Scrooge's complaints match up to this then, yes, I am like him.

Do you have any strange or different pre-show rituals that you perform?

I try to stretch at home before I come to the theater and meditate on what Scrooge would say while talking to himself.

Do you have any fun facts about yourself that you think the world should know?

I am a poet, antique book collector, folk guitarist, and avid bicyclist. I worked as a commerciAl Fisherman in Alaska for two years during the 80's. I also worked as a union construction worker and welder on the Statue of Liberty renovation project. I have a doctoral degree in Pedagogy and Philosophy from the Institute for the Advancement for Philosophy for Children at Montclair State University. I am an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Raritan Valley Community College.

As you can tell, there is more than meets the eye when it comes to the "humbug" on stage! A Christmas Carol runs from November 18th to December 18th at The Growing Stage Theater in Netcong, New Jersey.