NOTE: The 2024 production of Trinity Rep’s A Christmas Carol at the Providence Performing Arts Center runs through December 4, and again from December 26-29. The show is on hiatus from December 5-25 when the theater hosts HAMILTON. Click here for details.
A Rhode Island tradition for theater lovers is back – Trinity Rep’s production of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol is playing at the Providence Performing Arts Center, and a Newport native, Nora Eschenheimer, stars in the show, playing the Ghost of Christmas Present.
I spoke to the award-winning actor by phone earlier this week as she prepared for a series of shows over the next week. The Newport resident and URI grad is thrilled to be part of the production, which switched to PPAC this year due to construction at Trinity. “It’s not only my first Christmas Carol at Trinty, but my first Trinity show!” she shared.
The production is going full throttle through December 4 and returns December 26-29. “It’s a very speedy turnaround; Mama Mia was just at PPAC, and we’ve only got a few days to run this before Hamilton moves in; it’s kind of a funky schedule this year,” she explained.
Eschenheimer, who remembers going to shows at Trinity as a teenager, is super enthused about the production.
“As a Newport kid, I used to ride Bus 60 up to Providence, get off at the RIPTA station, walk up Washington Street, call my Mom and Dad from the Trinity Rep payphone, and then watch a show at Trinity,” she recalled. “They had $10 bench seats, and that was the best education I could have asked for. I did that all through high school. I feel really lucky to be part of the team this year.”
The cast is enjoying the new (albeit temporary) digs at PPAC, which offers a much larger stage and backstage cast amenities. “PPAC is absolutely lovely,” she said. “What a treat! I share a dressing room with only one other person, we all have private restrooms, it’s nice,” laughed Eschenheimer. “For everyone, this is a nice new experience. It’s keeping us on our toes.”
She shared a little bit about her role as Ghost of Christmas Present in the production. “It’s larger than life. We have amazing costumes and wig design. My entrance as “present” is certainly going to be dropping jaws.”
I asked how she approaches playing such a well-known character, where many in the audience are familiar with the story. “For me, whenever I play a character where I know people are going to be mouthing along the lines, the job is never to be doing a new version for those people. I like telling the story as honestly and as fully as possible for the people seeing it for the very first time.”
This show, in particular, is about telling the story for the first-timers,” she continued. “Just by doing that, the show is going to be unique, putting your own personality into it does that, so you don’t have to overthink the role.”
“What I love about Trinity Rep’s Christmas Carol, and why it’s worth seeing every year is because it is such a different show every single year,” continued Eschenheimer. “Trinity really gives you an entirely different experience. The Christmas past, present, and future this year are unlike anything that people have seen at Trinity before. I alone have 11 costume changes. We’re all changing hats, literally, man, many times.”
There are twelve children in the cast, split into two groups, the red cast and the green cast. “They are calling themselves candy canes and grinches. For a lot of the kids on the cast, their first exposure to theater was Trinity’s Christmas Carol.
In addition to Trinity, Eschenheimer has performed at theaters around the country, including the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company in Boston, the Shakespeare Center in Los Angeles, and the Gamm Theatre in Warwick. She credits the Newport Children’s Theater, Newport Teen Rep, and her Rogers High School drama teacher, Peter Corr, with supporting her thespian voyage thus far.
Next up for Eschenheimer, she’ll be starring as Ophelia in Hamlet at The Gamm Theater. “We start rehearsals in March, and open in April,” she said. Click here for details.
And don’t be surprised if you bump into her in another local role – she’s the captain of the Rum Runner II and works for the Rose Island Lighthouse Foundation. “I sort of do six months on the boat, and six months in theater.”
Click here for tickets and more.
