A Christmas Carol
A Ghost Story of Christmas
Quick Synopsis:
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens is a famous 1843 holiday story. It follows Ebenezer Scrooge, a cold, greedy old man who hates Christmas. On Christmas Eve, he is visited by the ghost of his dead partner, Jacob Marley, and three spirits who show him his past, present, and future. This particular script was written by Michael Wilson and brings the story to life through a swirling, dancing chorus of ghosts who weave through this uplifting holiday story of redemption, magic and hope.
A Note on Casting:
The original production utilizes doubling of actors to cover all roles, but the DPA production will accommodate approximately 12-18 actors. The below is a sampling of the original breakdown of the characters, but is not indicative of the final DPA casting or inclusive of all the characters in the script.
Characters:
Directions:
Audition forms due: Sept 9, 2026
Auditions: September 9, 7pm (monologues in auditorium)
Callbacks: September 10, 5pm (sides in auditorium)
Read Through: September 14, 6pm (in auditorium)
Mandatory Rehearsals: November 15-19 (Tech Week)
Shows: November 20-22, 2026
***FOR THOSE WHO CANNOT ATTEND IN-PERSON AUDITIONS: Please email donegalstage@donegalsd.org for an accommodation request and reason for your request. IF, you receive approval you will need to submit a video audition with your two monologues by 7pm on Wednesday, September 9. Videos submitted after this time are not guaranteed to be considered.***
***You must obtain approval from Bri to submit an online audition. Please send a message to donegalstage@donegalsd.org with your request and reason for your request if you need this accommodation***
TIPS FOR AUDITIONING AND OTHER INFORMATION
When you come for first round auditions (in the auditorium), you will wait in the hall for your time slot. When you are called, come into the room, stand on the mark that is front and center, and tell the audition judges your name and which monologues you will be doing. Then, take a deep breath and act out your monologues. This should not be a cold reading. The lines and the accent should be rehearsed. Please do not ask for extra audition materials. This will make it seem like you are unprepared (and haven’t looked at the audition materials since you got them). When you’re finished reading, you’re free to leave.
The best audition outfit is business casual. For female-presenting people, this might mean a blouse and a skirt or dress pants. For male-presenting people, this might mean a polo or button-down shirt and dress pants. At the very least, you need to make sure you’re wearing clothes that indicate that we can take you seriously as a person and as a part of a group of people who will have a lot of work to do and many lines to memorize.
A Christmas Carol is one of the most well-known Christmas stories, and has numerous screen adaptations. It would be wise to watch a movie or miniseries adaptation or to find a copy of the book or play to read. Reading about or seeing others perform the roles may help you figure out how to play the character in the monologues you choose, and looking up interviews with actors who share a dialect with the character you’re reading for will help in presenting a good accent. However, don’t simulate others’ performances exactly. We’re looking for what you personally bring to the role.
You will choose two monologues to deliver from two different characters. Even if you really REALLY want the role of Scrooge, you might be mistaken about what your true talents are and what role is best for you. So, the more you read, the better your chance is at getting a part. It’s best to memorize your monologue because: 1) you can use your face to express the emotions of the scene without obscuring your face with the lines, 2) you’ll seem dedicated, 3) you can use your hands and body as the character would, and 4) true acting can’t happen until the words are second nature. Your voice and posture should reflect the historical time period and the age of the character.
Though it may be tempting to come in, read from the page, stand like a statue, and make no eye contact, that won’t earn you a role. You’ll need to use projection to fill the room. To stand out, you need to be confident enough to take risks and to do something different with the monologues. Let your personality fill the stage. What will set you apart? Confidence. Charisma. Character.
FEMALE CHARACTER MONOLOGUES
MRS. DILBER -
Merry Christmas, Joe. I’m out me job! The old master died last night, and seeing as he left behind no will, I helped meself. Every person’s got the right to take care of themselves. He always did! So who’s the worse for the loss of a few things like these? Not a dead man, I suppose? If he wanted to keep ‘em after he was dead - wicked old screw! - why wasn’t he natural in his lifetime? If he had been he’d have had somebody to look after him when he was struck with Death - indeed, instead of lying there alone, gasping out his last, by himself. It would have been a little heavier judgement if I could have laid my hands on anything else. It’s no sin. This is the end of it, you see…He frightened everyone away from him when he was alive, to profit us when he was dead!
MRS. CRATCHIT -
The founder of the Feast, indeed! I wish I had him here. I’d give him a piece of my mind to feast upon and I hope he’d have a good appetite for it! It should be Christmas Day, I’m sure, on which one drinks the health of such an odious, stingy, hard, unfeeling man as Mr. Scrooge. You know he is, Robert! Nobody knows it better than you do! I’ll drink his health for your sake and for the Day’s - not for his. Long life to him. A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! He’ll be very merry and very happy, I have no doubt! To Mr. Scrooge!
FAN -
Ebenezer! I have come to bring you home, dear brother! To bring you home home home! Home for good and all. Home for ever and ever. Father is so much kinder than he used to be that home is like heaven. He spoke so gently to me one dear night that I was not afraid to ask him once more if you might come home. And he said “Yes, you should,” and sent me in a coach to bring you. And you are never to come back here again. And father’s found you a position. In the city. You start right after the new year. But first, we’re to be together all the Christmas long and have the merriest time in all the world! Come Ebenezer!
MALE CHARACTER MONOLOGUES
EBENEZER SCROOGE -
Bah humbug! Of course I’m cross. What else can I be when I live in such a world of fools as this? Merry Christmas! Our upon a merry Christmas! What’s Christmas-time to you but a time for paying bills without money. A time for finding yourself a year older, and not an hour richer. If I could work my will, every idiot who goes about with “Merry Christmas” on his lips should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly though his heart. He should, Nephew! Keep Christmas in your way, and let me keep it in mine.
MARLEY’S GHOST -
EBENEZER! It is required of every man that the spirit within should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide; and, if that spirit goes not forth in life, it is condemned to do so after death. It is doomed to wander through the world - oh woe is me! - and witness what it cannot share, but might have shared on earth. Now see my fetters. I wear the chain I forged in life/ I made it link by link, and yard by yard. Is its pattern strange to you? Or would you know the weight and length of the strong coil you bear yourself? It was full and heavy and as long as this, seven Christmas Eves ago. You have labored on it since. It is a ponderous chain!
FRED -
Come, then, what right have you to be dismal? What reason have you to be morose? You’re rich enough! I have always thought of Christmastime, when it has come around, as a good time; a kind , forgiving, charitable, pleasant time; the only time I know, in the long calendar of the year when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on some other journey/ And therefore, uncle though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good and will do me good; and I say, God bless it!