Richard Poe segues from Charles Dickens into Ebenezer Scrooge at the outset of the Ford’s Theatre’s presentation of “A Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story of Christmas,” the original title of this powerful tale of greed and redemption.
“I can only bring who I am to this role,” says Poe, who last performed as Scrooge in the eighth grade. “I’ve watched all the film versions I could find to get a sense of how experienced actors treat the moment. Because Charles Dickens came to Washington during his tour of this country, I enter the stage as him in the prologue and incorporate a little gesture to the Lincoln box before getting into the character of Scrooge.
“This is something he might have done when he appeared at Ford’s Theatre in 1867, only two years after the President’s assassination. On that occasion, Dickens read one of his Christmas works, perhaps this very one.
“At the end of the play, I step out of character and speak to the audience about what happened to Scrooge and how the story ends. Ford’s Theatre is such a special venue that you can’t help being affected by it and feeling a presence of some kind.”
Poe loved the theater as a youngster in Pittsburg, Calif., but he majored in history during college and served in the Army during the Vietnam War before being offered a role in “Wait Until Dark” at a little theater in Carmel, California “for dinner and car fare.”
“I was probably pretty awful, but I continued acting,” he says. “I felt like I was shot out of cannon when I was chosen to tour in ‘Hamlet’ with Dame Judith Anderson in the title role. She was already well into her 70s. We traveled in a bus for about eight months. Every night she’d arrive at the theater in a pink coat with a beret and I wondered if she could make it. But then she’d take off the coat and mount the stage in black tights and get right into character. I quickly learned how to be a trouper.”
Poe’s successful stage career evolved from touring in Shakespearean roles to such Broadway hits as “M. Butterfly,” “Moon Over Buffalo” and the 2006 Tony Award-winning production of “Pajama Game.” His film credits include “Born on the Fourth of July,” Transamerica” and “Presumed Innocent.”
‘A Christmas Carol’
Charles Dickens’s “A Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story of Christmas” runs through Dec. 30.
Venue: Ford’s Theatre, 511 10th St. NW, Washington
Performances: 7:30 p.m. daily, 2:30 p.m. Dec. 20, 22, 23, 27 and 28, and noon Nov. 29 and 30 and Dec. 6, 7, 13 and 14
Tickets: $30 to $55
More info: 800-551-7328 or www.fordstheatre.org
