A Christmas Carol
RIR #104, Season 14, Episode 12, Dec. 2 & 10, 2026
An audio player will be available here when this episode is released. In the meantime, follow the "Episodes" link above and enjoy our previous episodes.
Live performances return
Re-Imagined Radio comes home for Christmas, with two live holiday performances of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Both FREE of charge thanks to a generous City of Vancouver Inspire Vancouver grant.
One performance at Washington State University on December 2, 2026.
Another at Kiggins Theatre, in downtown Vancouver, December 10, 2026.
For these two performances we introduce our new troupe of actors, The Pretty Good Players, including some community actors you may recognize. Our sound effect artist is considered the best in the Pacific Northwest. And our substantial expansion of the 1939 Campbell Playhouse performance is something to hear. Hint: Our story includes a new ghost whose insights are meaningful and telling.
A great ghost story for Christmas. Join us at Washington State University for the premiere performance. And again at Kiggins Theatre for the memories.
Happy Holidays everyone! Re-Imagined Radio returns with two live holiday performances. Please join us.
Download Links
Download episode to your
device→
Download episode media
kit→
Download episode script
Background
A Christmas Carol
Re-Imagined Radio first presented A Christmas Carol at Kiggins Theatre, in December 2013, as an adaptation by Willamette Radio Workshop, directed by Sam A. Mowry, of The Campbell Playhouse December 24, 1939 performance, starring Lionel Barrymore, one of America's greatest stage and screen actors, as Ebenezer Scrooge, and Orson Welles, as narrator. Craig Wichman tells us this performance is the classic telling of this timeless tale (Wichman).
Charles Dickens finished his novella A Christmas Carol late November 1843. He was thirty one. Previously he had published the novels The Pickwick Papers (1836), Oliver Twist (1837), Nicholas Nickleby (1838), The Old Curiosity Shop (1840), Barnaby Rudge (1841), and Martin Chuzzlewit (1843). His newest novella took personal redemption as its theme.
Six thousand copies of A Christmas Carol, personally designed by Dickens, with special spine and end papers, and hand-colored illustrations by John Leech, were released December 19, 1843. By December 24, Christmas Eve, all were sold.
Dickens never copyrighted A Christmas Carol and so it has been reprinted again and again by many others, including an exact reproduction by The Atlantic Monthly Press in 1920.
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens was an immediate sensation and remains a much beloved holiday tale adapted to stage plays, motion pictures, television, and radio.
A Christmas Ghost Story
There are many notable points about A Christmas Carol. The juxtaposition of holiday themes like themes of joy, hope, and redemption against the reality of grinding poverty, and cruel Victorian-era laws. Most noteable, however, might be the inclusion of four ghosts.
Dickens' intention seems clear when he subtitles his novella "A Ghost Story of Christmas."
There are four ghosts. The first to visit Scrooge is the Ghost of Marley, his former business partner, dead seven years, who foretells visits by three spirits who will provmpt Scrooge to embrace redemption.
The Ghost of Christmas Past, who presents as both young and old, illustrates how Scrooge's past sins, led to his present miserly solitude, which will be reverse symbolized by a visit from the Ghost of Christmas Present. The hooded Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come will symbolize the deaths of Tiny Tim and Scrooge himself.
The message of these ghostly visits is clear. If Scrooge continues his path his afterlife purgatory will be that of Jacob Marley and his heavy chains, the endless prison of wandering the Earth (Anonymous)
Re-Imagined Radio introduces a new ghost/spirit, Sotto Voce. A meta-narrator, who provides additional information about Scrooge, Charles Dickens, and the aspects of Victorian-era culture he feels must be changed.
Production
Significance
Re-Imagined Radio has offered some iteration of "A Christmas Carol" every holiday season since 2013. It's a tradition for us now. A community message of hope.
For most of our live performances, Re-Imagined Radio has adapted the December 24, 1939 performance, for The Campbell Playhouse, staring Lionel Barrymore as Scrooge, Orson Welles, and the actors of The Mercury Theatre on the Air. It's considered by critics and radio historians as the definitive performance of this classic tale (Wichman).
This holiday season, rather than adapting, Re-Imagined Radio reshapes this classic holiday story. Why not, it's our first public performance since 2020. Time we get back out among the holiday people.
Credits
Written, Produced, Hosted by John F. Barber
Post production by Marc Rose.
Graphics by Sage Vu, Amelia Newburg, Hope Sims, and Holly Slocum.
Program Management by Caitlyn Kruger-Lesperance.
YouTube strategies and announcing by Rylan Eisenhauer.
Cast in order of appearance
Oliver Garcia-Farina as Stage Manager and Young Scrooge.
Rylan Eisehnauer as Announcers.
Ronn Hanley as Socco Voce.
Steve Becker as Scrooge.
Sage Vu as Bob Cratchit and Caroler.
Michaela Eldridge as Theremini thespian.
Noah Roeske as Nephew Fred.
Anne McEnerny-Ogle as Mayor of London and Mrs. Cratchit.
Joe Clemons as Marcus Vance.
Sara Lowe as Lady Vance.
Richard Newberg as Jacob Marley and Fizziwig.
Lindsey Jacobsen as Ghost of Christmas Past and Caroler.
Christopher Turk as Ghost of Christmas Present and Street Musician.
Amelia Newberg as Belle and Martha Cratchit.
Elias Brumfeld as Tiny Tim.
Samuel Collins as Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come.
Nicholas Pendergrass as Goose Boy.
Crew
David Ian, analogue (Foley) sound effects.
Marilyn Gable, digital sound effects.
Martin John Gallagher and James L'Esperance, sound engineers, designers, and recordists.
Samuel Collins, backdrop image operator.
Nicholas Pendergrass, documentary film maker.
Caitlyn Kruger-L'Esperance, social media coordination.
Noah Roeske, website developer.
Producer's Notes
This live performance of A Christmas Carol is an artifact of DTC 499 Directed Studies: Multimedia Performance and Broadcast, a course I taught in Fall 2026 in the Digital Technology and Culture Department at Washington State University Vancouver. Many who acted or served on the various production crews were students in this program. I can't thank them enough for their effort, energy, and support.
We were joined by several community volunteers, including the Mayor of Vancouver, Washington, Anne McEnerny-Ogle. I owe a great debt to these individuals as well for their help developing and presenting this holiday gift to our community. They certainly embodied the spirit intended by Charles Dickens when he wrote this wonderful story.
Re-Imagined Radio has offered some performance of A Christmas Carol every holiday season since 2013. Our early offerings were performed by Willamette Radio Workshop, directed by Sam A. Mowry. They were followed by Metropolitan Performing Arts. During the COVID years, we offered various recorded performances. Now, it's good to return with a new troupe of voice actors and sound artists, The Pretty Good Players, and once again offer this classic holiday tale as live performance.
We dedicate this performance to Thomas "Tommy" Anthony Ortale, classmate, colleague, collaborator, who left us for the spirit world, August 24, 2026. Tommy was a friend with a big heart and big ideas who inspired us all in big ways. He is here with us in spirit. He is welcome and we bid him stay.
Works Cited
Anderson, Frank. 9XM
- The First Transmission of Human Speech and the Creation of Public Radio.
Wisconsinology, April 5, 2020.
First published in Wisconsinology in 2008. Revised in 2020 by the Author.
Anonymous. "Past, Present and Future — The Threat of Time." A Christmas Carol. LitCharts. www.litcharts.com/lit/a-christmas-carol/themes/past-present-and-future-the-threat-of-time
Fishman, Karen. Our Favorite
Scrooge. Library of Congress Blogs, December 29, 2014.
https://blogs.loc.gov/now-see-hear/2014/12/our-favorite-scrooge/
Goldin, J. David. Good
News Of 1939. RadioGOLDINdex: The Definitive Database of Old Time Radio Programs.
https://radiogoldin.library.umkc.edu/Home/RadioGoldin_Records?searchString=Good%20News%20Of%201939&type=Programs&count=40
Goldin, J. David. The
Cambell Playhouse. RadioGOLDINdex: The Definitive Database of Old Time Radio
Programs.
https://radiogoldin.library.umkc.edu/Home/RadioGoldin_Records?searchString=The%20Campbell%20Playhouse&type=Programs&count=50
Grams, Jr., Martin. Radio Drama: A Comprehensive Chronicle of American Network Programs, 1932-1962. McFarland, 2000.
LFink@NCTE.org. Radio
Broadcasts and Charles Dickens.
https://ncte.org/blog/2021/12/radio-broadcasts-charles-dickens/
OTR — A
Christmas
Carol (1939). Monster Movie Kid, n.d.
https://monstermoviekid.wordpress.com/2020/12/24/otr-a-christmas-carol-1939/
Radio
Broadcasts and Charles Dickens. NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English)
Blog, Dec. 19, 2021.
https://ncte.org/blog/2021/12/radio-broadcasts-charles-dickens/
Wichman, Craig. Standing In the Spirit at Your Elbow: A History of Dicken's Christmas Carol as Radio/Audio Drama. BearManor Media, 2012.
Promotion
Press
Graphics
Looking for other graphics to promote this episode?