A Christmas Carol (2007)

My daughter's first real acting gig outside of films we've shot is A Christmas Carol at the St. Pete Little Theater. As an added bonus, my wife is also in the play.

My son and I sat down in this truly historic theater (over fifty years old) housing this equally historic theater company (over seventy years old) and watched a very enjoyable and relatively short version of the A Christmas Carol story. The show is carried and completely enjoyable due to the performance of Michael DuMouchel as the lead character Ebeneezer Scrooge. He has both a hard heart and a sharp wit. DuMouchel is able to find wonderful, small moments of humor in this iconic role, giving his character a full three dimensions.

The rest of the cast is solid and the entire production runs slightly over an hour in length.

As for a theater experience from my wife and daughter... my daughter has enjoyed every single moment of it. She truly loves the craft of acting and savors every moment of the process, from auditions to rehearsal to performance.

My wife, on the other hand, is not wired that way. My wife hates the process of anything. She likes the idea of dinner and eating the dinner, but not cooking. She likes the idea of decorating the house and looking at our decorated house, but not decorating. And she likes the idea of being in a play and enjoys the performances, but really disliked the rehearsal process.

All that being said, it was nice for her to be able to share our daughter's first "real" acting gig with her.

If you get a chance, check out SPLT's A Christmas Carol. It was added late into their overall program schedule and only runs through the end of next week. Tickets are cheap and the theater is big, so see the play if you can. DuMouchel's performance is worth the price of admission.

BTW - Michael DuMouchel's brother Steve played Lamont Vaughn in the low-budget feature I wrote called Ready, Willing & Able. Small world.