Editor's Note: Since this story was published, The Rep has canceled it's planned in-person, one-man adaptation of Jacob Marley's Christmas Carol and will instead offer a free replay of the full 2016 production of the play. You can read more about this change here.
Photo courtesy of Milwaukee Rep
Lee. E. Ernst
It was the second week of March when actor Lee. E. Ernst was playing Giles Corey in the production of The Crucible at The Resident Ensemble Players Theatre in Newark, Delaware. After only three weeks of performances, they were forced to suspend the production.
“None of us knew what to expect next,” Ernst says. “We were in limbo for a time; at the ready, but uncertain. The early stages of the pandemic were confusing, disorienting, and before we were able to fully get our minds around our new reality, all of our lives and daily routines began to radically be upset and sent into a new orbit.”
Ernst says it felt surreal when he realized he wouldn’t be returning to the stage. “This scenario was simultaneously played out in hundreds and hundreds of theaters throughout the country, and has compromised, and in many cases devastated, the lives of thousands, or more, whose livelihoods are tied to live theater, one our most cherished cultural resources, and one of the prime experiences we require to renew our collective spirits, and reinforce our common humanity,” Ernst says.
However, on Dec. 1, Ernst will be back on stage to perform in Tom Mula’s one-person adaptation of Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol at the Milwaukee Repertory Theater. According to a press release, the Milwaukee Rep Theater is the first theater in Wisconsin to be approved by all unions to reopen if COVID conditions allow.
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Photo courtesy of Milwaukee Rep
Stage rendering for Milwaukee Rep's Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol
“I fully appreciate what it means to be a part of an effort to restore cultural norms, and to bring people together again,” Ernst says.
He also says that he feels a profound sense of responsibility since this may be the first time people see a live performance again. “I’ve been alone more than at any other time in my life. I perceive others in a more heightened way, and I truly feel that the balm of a live performance has the potential to touch all of us in a new way, and restore some modicum of hope for art, culture and community,” he says.
Safety Precautions
On Oct. 7, the Milwaukee Repertory Theater held a Health and Safety informational session via Zoom hosted by experts who helped develop the plan for the theater’s reopening. The panel included Managing Director Melissa Vartanian, Dr. Mark Niedfedlt, Carl Mulert, business representative for live performance and more. The informational session was open to the public and left time to answer questions.
Some of the new precautions include no seating in the first row, operating at 25% capacity, specifically blocked off seats to enforce social distancing and no intermissions for food and beverage. Everyone inside the building must wear a face mask and have their temperature taken before entering. The theater has also invested in Clorox 360 machines, which are meant to disinfect the entire theater complex. These machines are also used on airplanes to disinfect the cabin.
To learn more in-depth about all safety measures that the Milwaukee Rep Theater has put in place, anyone can watch the informational session here.
A New Take on “Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol”
Ernst says a unique aspect of the play is the challenge to perform a one-person, multi-character script. “I’ve been in over a dozen Christmas Carols at Milwaukee Rep, and played a slew of Dickens’s characters, including Scrooge, Cratchit and Marley,” Ernst says. “Tom Mula’s take on the classic, however, demands a ‘re-conception,’ if you will. My task will be to take the audience with me on a journey that they have taken for nearly half a century and ask them to see it from a new perspective.”
Ernst will begin rehearsing on Nov. 3, and looks forward to working with the play’s director, Mark Clements, and foley artist, Dan Kazemi. “Mark is a wonderful director and I have great trust in his guidance and artistry, and Dan is a consummate musician, actor, composer, conductor with whom I’ve had the pleasure of working a number of times, and I’m thrilled that he will be joining us,” he says. “This will be a fascinating process.”
Ernst hopes that the reopening of theater will bring back the essential element of live theater: shared experience. “Now, more than ever in my lifetime, we are denied connection, and as humans, we are desperate for it,” Ernst says. “We are for the most part social animals, and without that we can drift to some very solitary, lonely, and cold places. Theatre provides an antidote for that.”
To purchase a Season Reset pass, go to milwaukeerep.com.
To read more theater reviews and previews, click here.
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To read more articles by Quinn Clark, click here.
