The Footlight Players will present “Scrooge Macbeth,” a holiday comedy the next two weekends at 133 South Union Street in Spencerport (across the street from Abbotts). The play by David MacGregor begins when four actors learn their castmates have food poisoning just before the curtain goes up. Not wanting to cancel the performance, they decide to throw out their script and replace it with a series of skits, songs, and dances that combine well-known Shakespearean characters with favorite holiday traditions.
“Imagine if Ebeneezer Scrooge showed up on Juliet’s balcony or Hamlet went Christmas shopping,” says David Kent of Spencerport, the director who also serves as the group’s president. Through a series of increasingly crazy combinations, the play fills the audience with holiday cheer while poking a little fun at the world’s most famous writer.
Kent also gives a lot of credit to his very experienced cast and crew who quickly embraced the show’s rapid pace and comic absurdity which makes the show a zany delight.
“The true fun is watching the actors commit themselves to playing a truly wild comedic character, then run offstage and return a few minutes later as someone completely different but equally weird,” Kent said. To pull it off, you need strong, veteran performers who are having fun themselves.”
The show is the latest production for the Footlight Players, a community theatre company founded in 1990 and performing in Spencerport for the last ten years. They stage a variety of productions: well-known classic comedies, murder mysteries, musicals and new plays written by local amateur authors. A recent season included both Agatha Christie and a musical revue featuring songs of World War II, paired with an original script written by founding member Inez Ringholz, who is the costumer and technical crew member for “Scrooge Macbeth.”
The variety of shows attracts a variety of performers from all over the Rochester area. Though a core group of actors has formed within the company, they freely cast new faces and welcome people with all experience levels with each production. It is a point of pride for Ringholz that many of the region’s current community theatre regulars got their start with Footlight, a pattern that she doesn’t expect to stop any time soon.
Tickets for “Scrooge Macbeth” are available at the door for all performances: December 8 and 9, 15 and 16 at 7:30 p.m. with an additional matinee performance at 2 p.m. on December 16. General admission is $14, and student and senior tickets are $12 (cash only). Guests may enter either through the front doors on Union Street or through a sliding glass door in the rear of the building, where an elevator provides access to the theatre space on the second floor.
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