VIDEO: Playing Scrooge at Theatre Calgary

Who: Stephen Hair
Age: 59
Experience: This is his 16th year playing Ebenezer Scrooge for Theatre Calgary; he’s acted in 21 of 23 productions of Theatre Calgary’s A Christmas Carol; the prolific Calgary actor has been in more than 250 productions across Canada including many for Alberta Theatre Projects, Theatre Calgary, Lunchbox Theatre and Stage West during his 30-year career; for five years, he was the artistic head at the Pleiades Theatre, now the Vertigo Mystery Theatre; in 2008, he won the Harry and Martha Cohen Award.

• “My first encounter with Scrooge was watching Alastair Sim on TV when I was a little kid. That was our family tradition. I still think he plays the best Scrooge ever in that black-and-white version.”

• “I’m a character actor. I’ve been playing 90-year-old men since I was 19 years old. I always knew I wanted to play Scrooge.”

• “In 1994, I got asked to be Scrooge. I had been playing the other roles of Jacob Marley for five years and the Ghost of Christmas Future for three years. I was called into the office to talk to the director and he said, ‘I want you to do Marley again.’ I said, ‘No, I don’t want to do Marley again; let’s just call it quits.’ A couple of weeks later, he called me and said, ‘Okay, let’s talk about Scrooge.’”

• “The first [performance] was what I called the ‘Farce Scrooge.’ It was cartoon. I had a big white pompadour wig, enormous makeup and great big acting. It has evolved from that, thank God.”

• “For years, I fought the old Canadian Tire version of Scrooge; the ‘Give like Santa, save like Scrooge’ characterization. I was always fighting it because the audiences wanted that and I wanted to wean them off that. There’s a deeper, darker, more interesting story here.”

• “I’ve always wanted to find the true heart of the man. He’s a businessman; he took some bad career paths, some bad life paths and made bad decisions, that’s all.”

• “I know it means so much to so many people. I feel a huge obligation. Each year, I feel it even more becauseI know they’re coming back year after year. I don’t want to be the same, and I don’t want to be bad.”

• “It’s interesting seeing how different people do different takes on Scrooge. When I’m flipping around on TV, even if I’ve seen a version before, I have to watch it. I can’t not watch it. The Muppets version of A Christmas Carol is one of my favourites, not necessarily because of Scrooge, but because of the other characters and how they relate to him.”

• “The very first time I [played the role], I had an Eat-More bar before the show. And the show was a huge success. Ever since then, I’ve been addicted to Eat-More bars. It’s become like a good luck charm.”

• “I’ll do it probably as long ask they keep asking me to.” 

Theatre Calgary’s A Christmas Carol runs until Dec. 27 at the Max Bell Theatre in the Epcor Centre. For tickets, visit theatrecalgary.com.