John Hardy brings his one-man show of the Christmas Carol to Lorton Workhouse Art Center.
It takes a certain amount of skill and finesse to put on a production of “A Christmas Carol,” with only one person. John Hardy has been doing this for the past 12 years and is taking his play to the stage at the Workhouse Art Center this holiday season.
“This is a great production, I use my body and voice,” Hardy said.
He plays over 40 characters to put on the production including Scrooge, Tiny Tim and all the rest using just stage antics and voice depictions. At first, it might seem he’s up there throwing on outfit after outfit, running around like a madman, but that’s not the case. “That’s not at all what I do,” he said.
The voices and expressions tell the whole story.
In order to pull off something like this, it takes a good story and the well known Charles Dickens’ tale of Scrooge and bah-humbug has been used in many forms. The Grinch could be called a “Scrooge,” and even the Charlie Brown Christmas story is similar – they couldn’t be happy and were looking for the true meaning of Christmas.
Hardy is into the story too, and the turn-around that happens to Scrooge is a favorite moment of his. “It surprises me and if it surprises me, it surprises the audience,” he said. “They’ll laugh and cry.”
Acting and Writing Career
Over 35 years onstage, Hardy's career in the professional theater has taken him in all directions. He has worked all over the country and overseas. Over the course of his career John has directed over one hundred professional productions including Macbeth, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo and Juliet, Henry V, Julius Caesar, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Oedipus the King, Man of La Mancha, The Taming of the Shrew and others. As an actor he's played roles including Hamlet, MacBeth, Tom Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie, Teach in American Buffalo and many others. In 2009 John played George in a national tour of Of Mice and Men. As a playwright he has had over fifty productions of fifteen plays produced across the country and overseas.
Hardy has another one-person play called “Rattlesnake,” that he wrote and performs at theaters around the country. He plays 16 characters in that play.
The Workhouse Art Center in Lorton is having several holiday events over the next few weeks including a toy drive, a production of the Who’s “Tommy” featuring a pinball wizard, and Xanadu starring Jessica Barraclough.
If you go…
The Christmas Carol
Saturday, Dec. 2 at 7 p.m., Sunday, Dec. 3 at 1 p.m.
Workhouse Arts center
9518 Workhouse Way
Lorton VA 22079
For more, go to workhousearts.org