A transplant from Georgia, Jonathan Wainwright was raised by a mother involved in the liberal arts and play productions, so he spent much of his childhood hanging around the theater. He occasionally filled kid roles in productions like Fiddler on the Roof and Brigadoon. In middle school, Wainwright moved from Georgia to Hales Corners and returned to theater in high school, acting in Whitnall High School’s production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. He attended Carrol College to study theater but “my adviser suggested I didn’t enjoy school as much as I enjoyed acting, so maybe I should go act. He was a smart man,” Wainwright laughs. His first play for The Rep was a role in Translations, and he went on to perform in Othello, and Of Mice and Men, among others.
This is Wainwright’s third season portraying Ebenezer Scrooge for the last three seasons of The Rep’s popular production of A Christmas Carol.
Tell us more about your background with A Christmas Carol.
This is my third year playing Scrooge, but I played Bob Cratchit for four years before that and understudied Scrooge for two of those years. Around 1995, I interned—they call it EPRs (Emerging Professional Residencies) now. So, I was in the production that year. I don’t really even remember it, it was a completely different version. Lots of sets on wires, so you had to be careful not to get run over by stuff!
Why do you think A Christmas Carol resonates generation after generation?
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I think part of it is that it’s accessible to everyone. It’s called A Christmas Carol, so it’s a Christian theme, but if you look at it, is it? It’s not—it crosses the gamut. Be kind. Do what you can do to help out. Don’t be a jerk. What it boils down to is that you have control and there’s room for redemption, reinvention—it’s not too late. You can always find time to make a change that’s going to make things better somehow, someway, and even what your influence can be.
If you look at the people in the world right now that have influence and what they can do with it and what they are doing with it both positively and negatively, it’s insane. Especially now how quickly things can be spread and changed and influenced, it’s mind-boggling.
What’s your favorite part of playing Scrooge?
The whole reclamation. As an actor, it’s just so fun to go down that rabbit hole and then climb back out. There’re not too many roles like that, where you get to go all the way from bad guy to good guy. He’s an interesting character that way, both antagonist and protagonist.
What’s the most powerful part of the play?
One of the things I enjoy the most is the singing of “Joy to the World” at the end. We were so glad when we added it back last year, it was gone for a year. It’s a nice moment for everybody—the audience, us… A lot of hard work is done by everyone and everyone’s enjoying themselves, the cast goes out and people put money in our hats (The Rep collects money for a charity). One of my favorite parts of the show is the end. Not like “Thank God, the show is over,” but more like “We did it again!”
The Rep’s A Christmas Carol has multiple shows every week through Dec. 24. Find tickets and more info at milwaukeerep.com.
