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Exclusive Interview: Director Jeff Thomakos of Inspired Acting Company's 'Scrooge in Rouge' · The BSB Podcast

• 0:00
  Who doesn't love a little holiday hijinks?
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  Inspired Acting Company is bringing the hilarious musical parody Scrooge in Rouge to their stage.
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  And today we're speaking with director Jeff Thomakos about the production.
• 0:10
  Thank you so much for being here today, Jeff.
• 0:13
  thanks for having me.
• 0:14
  So you just had your opening weekend for Scrooge in Rouge How did that go?
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  It went amazingly well.
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  uh It's nice to be reminded after several weeks of rehearsal that we're actually funny.
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  And it's nice when people walk by uh the concession stand during intermission and say things like effing hilarious to me.
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  So that's great.
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  The audience uh is just finding it hysterical, which is exactly what we hoped they would.
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  think that's something that a lot of maybe audiences don't really realize when you're thinking about like you're rehearsing a comedy is that there isn't like immediate feedback
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  a lot of the time because like other than the people that are in the room, you know?
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  Yeah.
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  And I find it funny and I'm a loud laugher.
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  But when the audience is there, I try to tone it down a little bit so they have a chance to laugh so that everyone doesn't look at me and go, well, the director finds it funny.
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  So.
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  But sometimes when you have that moment that you can just hear that one person laughing that makes it even more just enjoyable So what is kind of going on in Scrooge in Rouge?
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  Well, Scrooge and Rouge is about a, well, it takes place in 1899 Victorian London at a London music hall.
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  And it's kind of a shady kind of music hall, you know, one that maybe the upper class wouldn't necessarily go to.
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  And it's supposed to be a 20 member variety players.
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  And as
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  As often happens in plays like these, 17 of the members have gotten food poisoning, leaving only three actors to do all the parts of a Christmas carol.
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  And so they're going for it, to hilarious results.
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  That is so, I can only imagine there's both, you know, a lot of things happening on stage with only three people.
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  So it's kind of like a lot of mishap is, guess, you know, a lot of easy way to say it, but there's not a lot of cast members to work with.
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  No, the chaos on stage is dwarfed by the chaos backstage, believe me.
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  There's 28 costumes for these three actors, and each one is assigned a dresser, sometimes they only have 17 seconds to make a quick change.
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  So they're running backstage, they're getting into a different costume and running back on stage, and it's hilarious.
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  Was that kind of a big challenge to get the timing down?
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  Because I feel like that's such an important part of the show.
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  Yes, absolutely.
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  We knew going in that this would be a really challenging show.
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  So we made sure that the costumes were quick rigged, which means that they are able to be taken off and put on very quickly.
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  And we knew we would need dressers and everything else.
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  So yes, the timing is everything.
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  We're, you know, maybe about we've gotten to about 90 percent.
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  of the costume changes, right?
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  Maybe sometimes they're a little late, but the actors just improvise.
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  I mean, it's part of the chaos.
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  Right.
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  going right in the story So obviously they're probably not going right behind the scenes
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  I feel like we can get away with anything with this show.
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  Which has to be kind of nice because then you, while it's, I know obviously as an artist and as a director, you want it to go right, but like to be able to roll the punches in
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  that way and not have it feel glaringly like, you know, obvious, it's probably a small, a small comfort.
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  Yeah, well, we tried during the rehearsal process to give the actors the freedom to improvise around the script, to feel that they felt comfortable if things go wrong and we
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  knew things would go wrong.
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  I said, expect things to go wrong, to improvise around those times and they've really run with it.
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  So it's great.
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  It speaks to their acting ability and how these sounds like they were the right choices of actors.
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  They left us no choice in the callbacks.
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  were three of the perfect actors for this show.
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  So what drew you to wanting to direct Scrooge in Rouge?
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  Well, we have been looking for a holiday show for some time, but we are a small 99 seat intimate space theater and a lot of these Christmas shows are huge.
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  mean, the Christmas Carol at Meadowbrook is like at least 20, 20 actors.
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  think it's, it's, I think it's more like 25, 28 on a, on a good year.
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  Um, and right, right.
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  And, um, and even
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  Even some of the smaller shows have 12 people, 10 people.
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  I was looking for a small cast show and I found this show and as soon as I got to one of the songs, is Father Has Forgiven You Almost that fan sings to Scrooge in which she says,
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  know, he's almost forgiven you except for the time mother gave birth to you and died.
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  I knew that this was the show for me.
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  I knew this was the show for us.
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  I knew it was funny enough.
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  And also it...
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  It kind of encapsulates what we're all about, which is we're called the inspired acting company, right?
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  So we really feel like acting is the greatest special effect and that if we have three dynamite actors playing 20 characters, that's worth the price of admission.
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  And that's actually uh just as exciting, if not more exciting than seeing a big spectacle
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  I truly think that like when I was looking at the, you know, the kind of synopsis as I was preparing for this interview, I was like, this is what would draw people in is just
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  because it's not a Christmas show that you would typically see, but still hits the Christmas notes and also gives you that comedy that people need to really laugh right now.
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  They certainly do.
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  And this sort of represents what theater is all about, which is when things go wrong, that's when we're the strongest.
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  And that's when we pull together and really put on um our art and further our mission, which is what it's all about, really.
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  And um yeah, it hits all those Christmas notes.
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  It really does.
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  One of our audience members said, it's ruined me for any other version of Carol.
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  um A lot of people, in fact, there's a meme going around the internet right now, which is like, this isn't your usual Christmas carol.
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  This is, you know, we have 20 fog machines spread around.
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  That's what makes us different.
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  But I think this Christmas carol truly is very different from other Christmas carols because you're not gonna believe what we do.
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  So for a show like this, you have a, like, what is your specific approach to directing or developing a stage show such as this one?
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  ah Well, the first approach is of course casting.
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  That's 90 % of directing.
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  Then uh for a show like this, we really have to make sure that the core of the story is being told.
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  And I believe that as a director, if I'm not telling the story, I'm the audience's advocate.
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  So as a director, I have to make sure that the story is clear and that the story...
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  uh
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  hits the audience in the right way.
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  So we have to make sure that the story is very clear.
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  Then we have to make sure that the characterizations are very clear.
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  going through each and every character and understanding that this is sort of such a meta show because it's a play in which actors are playing actors playing characters.
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  they are, so they don't have to be, at one point one of the actors was doing one of the roles and I said, you're too good.
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  your character is not as good as you are.
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  You have to be less good than you are.
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  And uh they're like, what?
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  Oh, so as soon as we found that balance of it's a, we're playing those characters, we're making those characters clear, and it's being played by the characters that they are
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  playing, I know it sounds confusing, then we will have a show.
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  And I think they succeeded.
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  That is like such a huge compliment to be like, you're too good for the character you're playing.
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  Tone it down just a little bit.
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  Yes, be less talented, please.
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  Yeah, exactly.
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  So how would you describe the tone you wanted to strike between parody, musical theater, and then also the traditional Dickens storytelling of the Christmas Carol?
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  um Boy, well, um you know, like I said before, we need to make sure that the story of A Christmas Carol is being told and told in as respectful a way as we are able.
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  And I think that the miracle of the script is that while it's extremely irreverent, excuse me, it's extremely irreverent um and it's extremely uh funny, uh it still has uh
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  the core of Dickens' tale underneath it.
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  And that's really important.
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  uh And then the balance between musical theater and the parody and everything else, you you just have to trust the script and understand that the script is uh very well written.
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  It's been very successfully played both in London and New Orleans and all over the U.S.
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  And uh that the script is going to find that balance for us in a lot of ways.
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  A lot of directors, I think, don't necessarily trust the script as much as they could.
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  um So, you know, we trust the script.
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  We try to set the atmosphere of a music hall as soon as you walk in the door.
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  It's smoky.
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  uh We do have one fog machine, I must admit.
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  uh
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  Yeah, right.
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  But we're setting the scene and not necessarily for a Christmas carol, but for a music hall, you know, like that's the music hall.
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  So we have that that music hall feel as soon as you walk in the door and then we go into the parody of uh which, believe me, the actors found it right away.
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  which I feel like it's so interesting of a show because you don't technically always see like parody mix with musical theater, but also trying to tell this story of a Christmas.
• 10:52
  Like I feel like that is such a like corner that they all like a joint that they all kind of meet at.
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  Yes, yes, it's a very unique show.
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  We love it.
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  I was very lucky to find it when I found it uh there.
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  It was available on Broadway on demand and it was available on YouTube.
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  And then uh somewhere between the time I was started to be interested in it, which was about a couple of years ago to now, all of that stuff was wiped.
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  So we had so we had no music.
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  Like most musicals, you can look up the soundtrack and get a sense of the music.
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  And all I had was trust.
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  I just trusted that back in 2024, I first, the early part of 2024, when I first started thinking about this show, that I thought it was good and I'm going to continue thinking
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  that it's good.
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  So seeing that this is set in a Victorian music hall, how did that influence your use of space and staging within ah Inspired Acting Company?
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  Because you kind of have, like you said, it's intimate theater.
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  There's only 90 seats.
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  And you're kind of in the middle of it all.
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  ah How did you kind of dictate that?
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  Well, know, musicals uh in London at that time were probably, you know, some of them, especially the kind of musical that we're playing in was even smaller than the space that
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  we're in now.
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  And people were more pressed in together.
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  think what drew me to this, another part of another reason that I was drawn to this musical is that it was perfect for our space.
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  are uh a 99 seat black box theater.
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  have uh
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  seats on all three sides uh or three sides of the action.
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  So the actors can really play around them.
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  feel you feel very connected to them, very intimately involved in all of the action.
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  Every seat in our house is a great seat.
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  So I feel like the show was just perfect for us.
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  And were there any challenges to adapting the story to like for the theater or do you feel like it just like you said, it's the perfect size, but like, was there pieces that as
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  you're developing, you're like, that didn't quite work for what we're trying to do here.
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  Let's, we have to adapt that.
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  boy, that's a very good question.
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  um You know, I don't know.
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  mean, I uh think it's one of those plays, know, Christmas Carol has been put on stages big and small for what, close to 200 years.
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  And so, um you know, I feel like it lends itself to the stage in a lot of ways.
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  So I didn't feel that
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  kind of challenge in doing it.
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  I felt that it was a good show, a good script choice for our space.
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  uh You know, I think the biggest uh issue that we have is we're such a small theater and we don't have a lot of crew.
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  So it would have been nice to have more crew working uh the backstage area, helping with the costumes, helping with the props.
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  But in this case, the actors are doing it all by themselves.
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  And in a lot of ways, that makes it better.
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  So how do you feel like Scrooge in Rouge captures the holiday feeling or like the holiday season?
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  I know again, it is a Christmas Carol, but like people are always looking for the holiday experience.
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  What is it like in Scrooge and Rouge?
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  um How does it capture the holiday feeling?
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  You know, God bless us everyone.
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  know, uh it's such a festive show.
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  It's a ridiculous show.
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  And I think, especially this holiday, people need humor.
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  They need to laugh.
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  They need to escape.
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  It's hard out there.
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  know, the Michigan economy is not that great.
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  And certainly the atmosphere for arts organizations such as ours is not that great.
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  And in this case, we're defiantly laughing and choosing to be happy and festive in these troubled times.
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  And I think that's what Christmas is all about.
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  It doesn't matter what year you've had.
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  We cling to Christmas, I think.
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  We cling to Christmas because we, at least the Christmas season.
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  you what, no matter what you believe in America, um because it gives us hope.
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  It gives us hope for the future, you know, and it says, you know what, love your fellow man, everything's going to be okay.
• 15:33
  That's a great answer and absolutely should be the takeaway that people need right now in this holiday season, but also from this show that let's laugh a little bit, let's come
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  together as a community and let's find a little bit of light in all of this because it can get really dark sometimes.
• 15:45
  Exactly,
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  Well, thank you so much for your time, Jeff.
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  has been such a pleasure talking with you.
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  So Scrooge in Rouge runs an inspired acting company through December 21st.
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  So get your tickets now and we'll see you at the show.