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Their view: The right not to design a cake

<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; It&#8217;s not exactly as popular as &#8220;Jingle Bells,&#8221; but there&#8217;s a Christmas song called &#8220;It&#8217;s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year,&#8221; and if you ever hear someone, perhaps Andy Williams, sing it, you might notice a line that mentions &#8220;there&#8217;ll be scary ghost stories and tales of the glories of Christmases long, long ago &#8230;&#8221;</p><p>Ghost stories? Aren&#8217;t they just for Halloween?</p><p>Not at all, says David Parmelee, who is directing &#8220;A Christmas Carol&#8221; at Little Theatre of Wilkes-Barre.</p><p>Charles Dickens crafted a ghost story when he wrote about the hard-hearted miser Ebenezer Scrooge and the unusual entities who visit him, beginning with his one-time business partner, Jacob Marley.</p><p>&#8220;The book starts out saying &#8216;Marley was dead &#8230; Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail,&#8217;&#8221; Parmelee said, explaining the Little Theatre production, which runs through Dec. 17, will capitalize on the ghostly wonder of it all.</p><p>&#8220;If a grandmother and grandchild come together, I expect the grandchild could be a little scared, and hold the grandmother&#8217;s hand and say, &#8216;How did they do that?&#8217;&#8221; Parmelee said.</p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;ll show them some of the magic,&#8221; Parmelee said, explaining audience members will see &#8220;magic maids&#8221; and &#8220;magic porters&#8221; pop in to move props or otherwise facilitate the action, perhaps appearing just in time to hand Mrs. Cratchit a bowl as she works in her kitchen, or to dust up any debris left by a departing spirit.</p><p>&#8220;I give an exasperated sigh, like &#8216;Why can&#8217;t these ghosts clean up after themselves?&#8217;&#8221; said Kelly Williams, of Luzerne, who portrays a magic maid.</p><p>Williams&#8217; family is one of at least four that can claim two or more relatives appearing in the cast together. Her husband, Matt, is a magic porter, and her children, 10-year-old Alice Hopa and 5-year-old Severin Williams, portray street urchins.</p><p>So, what&#8217;s it like to be an urchin?</p><p>&#8220;We are technically orphans, begging for scraps, like a penny,&#8221; Alice said, adding the daily life of a real urchin in Dickens London would have been &#8220;probably horrible.&#8221;</p><p>But does Ebenezer Scrooge have compassion for the poor? Not when we first meet him.</p><p>&#8220;He says, &#8216;I&#8217;ll see you in jail,&#8217; &#8221; said Vanessa Peterson, of Larksville, who portrays one of the old miser&#8217;s debtors.</p><p>Why is Scrooge so mean? It&#8217;s not as if he never had a good example; as a young man he was apprenticed to the generous and jolly Mr. Fezziwig.</p><p>&#8220;We have the most riotous scene,&#8221; said Walter Mitchell, of Bear Creek Village, who in his role as Fezziwig arranges a celebratory Christmas party. &#8220;It&#8217;s &#8216;bring in the neighbors, bring wine, let&#8217;s have a dance.&#8217; &#8220;</p><p>&#8220;In my scene with young Scrooge,&#8221; Mitchell continued, &#8220;I intentionally set him up with a beautiful woman. But he never shows emotion, even as a young man. Essentially, Belle will tell him later she can&#8217;t marry him because he has an idol. It&#8217;s money.&#8221;</p><p>Scrooge does succeed in earning money, but he loses Belle and turns into quite a friendless old man. His clerk, Bob Cratchit, in contrast has very little income &#8212; Scrooge sees to that &#8212; but is rich in the affection of his family.</p><p>&#8220;All the little kids hide when their father comes home, to surprise him,&#8221; said Davy Janoski, of Dallas, who portrays the young Scrooge.</p><p>One of many loving moments in the Cratchit household, the children&#8217;s eager, fun-filled greeting shows &#8220;They&#8217;re really the rich ones,&#8221; Janoski said.</p><p>Audiences will probably find their sympathy for Scrooge building as the Ghost of Christmas Past, portrayed by Carol Warholak Sweeney, reminds him of his lonely boyhood, and they&#8217;ll probably feel his pain as the Ghost of Christmas Present, portrayed by John Beppler, lets him listen in on a guessing game at his nephew&#8217;s Christmas gathering.</p><p>Party guests ask: Is it a horse? A cat? A dog?</p><p>No, no, no. This creature is &#8220;disagreeable&#8221; and &#8220;savage&#8221; and &#8220;lives in London&#8221; and &#8220;growls.&#8221;</p><p>The answer to the puzzle is, of course, Uncle Scrooge.</p><p>And, if you think the Ghost of Christmas Present had something unpleasant to show Scrooge, it&#8217;s nothing compared to what the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come has in store.</p><p>&#8220;Everybody knows the story. Everybody knows how it ends,&#8221; said cast member Chas Beleski. &#8220;Still, they come and see it. They want to see that message of Christmas and to be a part of it.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;People are really going to enjoy the range of emotions,&#8221; said Tyler Floryan, of Forty Fort, who portrays Scrooge&#8217;s nephew. &#8220;They&#8217;ll see great sorrow, happiness, fear and redemption. &#8220;</p><p>For Jennifer Elliott, of Bear Creek, who&#8217;s been helping with costumes and watching her three children rehearse their parts, an especially poignant symbol of Scrooge&#8217;s redemption is the casting of the lad in the street who runs off at Scrooge&#8217;s request to buy a large turkey for the Cratchits.</p><p>The youth is portrayed by her 10-year-old son, Tate, who also, earlier in the show, portrays Scrooge as a boy.</p><p>The newly generous Scrooge, played by Felix Wawer, urges the boy in the street to run very fast, the way a younger Scrooge used to run.</p><p>This time, audiences can think, Scrooge will catch up with the past, and no longer leave a good deed undone.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Felix Wawer, as Scrooge, is in for a time-traveling journey with Carol Warholak Sweeney, as The Ghost of Christmas Past, in Little Theatre of Wilkes-Barre&#8217;s production of &#8216;A Christmas Carol.&#8217; </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/web1_scrooge.withchristmaspast-2.jpg</photo0><caption0>Felix Wawer, as Scrooge, is in for a time-traveling journey with Carol Warholak Sweeney, as The Ghost of Christmas Past, in Little Theatre of Wilkes-Barre&#8217;s production of &#8216;A Christmas Carol.&#8217; </caption0><photoCredit0>Angel Berlane Mulcahy | On My Cue Photography </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/web1_scrooge.withbelle-3.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Felix Wawer, as Scrooge, watches a younger version of himself (Davy Janoski) having a painful conversation with Belle (Marissa Moku). </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/web1_scrooge.withbelle-3.jpg</photo1><caption1>Felix Wawer, as Scrooge, watches a younger version of himself (Davy Janoski) having a painful conversation with Belle (Marissa Moku). </caption1><photoCredit1>Angel Berlane Mulcahy | On My Cue Photography </photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/web1_scrooge.cratchits-2.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Becky Bennett Coursen and William Zeranski, as Mr. and Mrs. Bob Cratchit, comfort each other as they mourn the loss of their son, Tiny Tim. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/web1_scrooge.cratchits-2.jpg</photo2><caption2>Becky Bennett Coursen and William Zeranski, as Mr. and Mrs. Bob Cratchit, comfort each other as they mourn the loss of their son, Tiny Tim. </caption2><photoCredit2>Angel Berlane Mulcahy | On My Cue Photography </photoCredit2></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta></subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p><strong>By Mary Therese Biebel</strong></p><p>mbiebel@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta><p><strong>IF YOU GO</strong></p><p><strong>What: </strong>&#8216;A Christmas Carol&#8217;</p><p><strong>When:</strong> Through Dec. 17 with performances at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 3 p.m. Sundays</p><p><strong>Where:</strong> Little Theatre of Wilkes-Barre, 537 N. Main St., Wilkes-Barre.</p><p><strong>Tickets:</strong> $17</p><p><strong>Info:</strong> LTWB.org and 570-823-1875.</p></factboxMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Mary Therese Biebel at 570-991-6109 or on Twitter @BiebelMT.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Ghosts, magic abound in Little Theatre’s production of ‘A Christmas Carol’