Bah! Humbug! The Christmas season is upon us. Again. Already. (Baltimore’s local 101.9 even had flipped the switch to their Christmas music on Thursday 11/20/25 as I was driving home to ring up Greg Burgess and interview him!) The holidays are upon us whether you’re ready or not. And in a world of so much darkness and chaos, aren’t the holidays meant to be what spreads a little love, a little light, a little joy? They bring us together— with traditions, like attending Chesapeake Shakespeare Company’s annual production of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. And for 11 years now (ten physically on the stage and once in an ethereal-internet-haze not so many Christmases ago) Gregory Burgess, a long-standing company member at CSC, has been the leading player— Ebenezer Scrooge. In a TheatreBloom exclusive phone-interview, I’ve gotten the great honor and distinct privilege of picking Greg’s brain all about what it’s like playing Scrooge and what that’s meant to him as the years have come and gone.
Well good afternoon, Greg! And thank you so much for giving me some of your time, I know you must be busy, busy, busy!
Greg Burgess: Well hello there, Amanda, how are you doing today? And you know what, any other day and I probably wouldn’t be as busy as I am today, so you’ve got that right! But thank you for phoning!
Absolutely! I will try not to take up very much of your time— quicker than the three spirits of Christmas, let’s say! If they can do it all in one night, hopefully I can do it all in one phone call! I’m going to put a few questions out there so that people can get all excited about Chesapeake Shakespeare Company’s A Christmas Carol, get all excited, and come out and see it!
Greg: Oh good! Good! We want people to come see it!
Yes! I’m actually quite excited to see it myself, I think the last time I saw it live was probably before the pandemic.
Greg: Oh my goodness! Well it will certainly be different and I think you’ll enjoy it!
Yes— I’ve heard some… things…that I won’t mention in case they’re meant to be surprises! Now, how is it that you came to be Scrooge? How did that whole process get started? CSC just decided one day, ‘hey, we need a Scrooge!’ and *POOF* there you were?
Greg: Haha! Yes, exactly! No, no, seriously, our Artistic Director, Ian Gallanar, had asked me if I would do it. It was our inaugural season of being at the building on Calvert Street. (2014) So I said, “Yeah, sure.” I guess we had just finished opening Midsummer Night’s Dream, which was really fun, and I was pretty much ready to go when asked, so that’s how it happened and I’ve been doing it ever since.
That’s excellent! What would you say is your favorite part about getting to be Ebenezer Scrooge? I get the impression you two are very different, as you seem like a jovial and lovely individual, and Scrooge…less so.
Greg: Well thank you! I guess that really changes from season to season. The cast makes it interesting, the different directors make it interesting, everybody has a different take on it. Each year it’s different and that can be tricky. The challenge comes with taking that all in and coming up with ideas in order to make that year’s ideas real. One show we had was focused around the idea of ‘what happens when you lose your sense of community?’ So there were certain experiences in that year’s show that would have stood out to me that year but won’t necessarily be the same thing that stands out to me this year or any other year. Another year we were focused around the idea of someone who grew up without love and what that does to a person. It’s a lot of different things. The other actors in the show bring what they have to it, so that changes how I play Scrooge or how Scrooge is in that year.
The other part of it is time. I’m not the same person that I was last year, or the first year, or any year in between as I am this year. And so Scrooge is always going to be different because I’m different. I’m in a different place in my life from the last time and will be from the next time.
I love hearing that. Believe it or not, I actually had another Scrooge (Paul Morella) tell me something exactly along those lines about 11 years ago when I was interviewing him about his one-man Christmas Carol! Now, what is your favorite version of A Christmas Carol?
Greg: You know what? That’s an interesting question. Everybody has watched some version of that movie or that play. I think it was 1951— Alastair Sims, that was the one that I liked a lot. But it’s an interesting thing because the more you do the character of Scrooge, the more you do A Christmas Carol, you realize other things. And in learning those other things, you see parts of those things in other movies. Alastair Sims would be the first one, I’m sure, but there are other ones. Like The Muppet one— The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992) with Michael Caine, I certainly like that! The one before Alastair Sims, with— ooh Lord, June Lockhart’s father, Reginald Owen (1938), that one— I can see at certain times and see different things from that version in our version. There’s a version with George C. Scott (TV- 1984) that I remember really liking. Then there was a more recent one with Guy Pearce (mini-series 2019)— that was really dark, it was on cable, and it was, what do they say, ‘not your children’s Christmas Carol? Amanda, I’m telling you, if you haven’t seen that one— watch that one! It was incredible! You take different things from different versions, from those movies, and you find yourself noting little moments and things. Oh, and Scrooged! (1988) the Bill Murray movie, that’s another one that I thought was really good too.
I will definitely take your recommendation on the Guy Pearce one. But as a child who grew up in the late 80’s and early 90’s, The Muppet Christmas Carol, is hands-down, my personal favorite. And I will argue with anyone who will listen that Dickens somehow got it wrong, and that there are— in fact not one, but TWO Marley Brothers. Jacob AND Robert.
Greg: Yes!!! Hahahaha! Yes that’s right! You know, we should probably try that at some in time, I think that would probably be pretty cool!
Absolutely it would and everyone in my generation would definitely appreciate it! Now, if you could write your own ticket, and play any other character in A Christmas Carol, who would you want to be?
Greg: Wow. That’s something! I don’t know that there’s just one other one. I like Marley. I would like doing Marley. I think I could do Marley and I think doing Marley would be fun. I also wouldn’t mind doing Bob Cratchet. At the same time— and not that this would ever happen— but Mrs. Dilber is pretty great and I would love to play her! You know, the thing about that play, Christmas Carol, and that story is that every character is well-defined. They have their mission statement, they know what they want or what they’re after, and it all ties in. You can immerse yourself into those characters and just let it rip.
That is so very true and I absolutely love that. Now, you mentioned that you’re in a different place this year, just like the audience and everyone else out there, so what is it that audiences, who have been coming to this year after year after year, what can they expect to be a little different this year? Or is that a super-secret surprise?
Greg: Well… I’ll keep it a secret!
Ooh. I like a secret. But we do have some different things that are going to surprise them?
Greg: Yeah. I mean, I’ve had different people who have come to this show over the years, and I’ve had different instances where they will approach me and say, “This is different this time.” And sometimes they can’t put their finger on what was different but they know something was different. So it will be a bit different, that’s for sure.
What would you say has been the big challenge this year, in 2025, for you?
Greg: I don’t know that it’s that big. The cast of this show is really great. It’s always a give and take when you’re on stage. We are having fun with it, and we’re pretty relaxed in it and we all trust each other to the point where we can try different things and do different things. With that, it’s a challenge keeping up with them to a certain extent. That’s probably almost the only thing that there is as far as challenges go! Now what we, as a company, wanted to present with this go-round, there’s the challenge with ‘how do we do that’, like I’d mentioned before where some years we had different focuses, so it’s working towards figuring out how to do that, but it’s always pretty fun.
Here’s somewhat of a tough one, what has playing Ebenezer Scrooge through the years— this year and years’ previous— taught you about yourself as an actor and as a human being?
Greg: Taking in everything, taking in as much as you can— on the stage and in life, especially with everything that we’re facing in this country— I’ve learned that as human beings, we can be pretty resilient. We can be capable of just incredible, incredible things for the good. But then again, we can do some pretty heinous things for the bad. It’s the struggle to try to fight beyond that, to try to fight beyond the bad. A lot of times we may know what the right thing to do is, but just getting to that point is tough.
The right thing isn’t always easy.
Greg: It’s never easy, I don’t think. I mean sometimes, maybe, but I don’t think it’s truly easy. In living for as long as I have, I can remember my father would say, “this is the right thing to do, I don’t want to do it, but I’m going to do it anyway.”
That sounds like the advice I’ve gotten from my father. It sounds like we were raised by good people.
Greg: Yes! Definitely!
Do you have a favorite Christmas song or Christmas carol? It doesn’t even have to be one from within the show!
Greg: Oh my! There’s so many! Louis Armstrong has that song “’Zat you, Santa Claus?” Pearl Bailey has one, oh what’s it called, “Five Pound Box of Money.”
I don’t think I’ve heard that one, I love Pearl Bailey, but I’m not familiar with that one.
Greg: Oh— oh, Amanda, you need to listen to that! Go look it up on YouTube! (I did, and Greg was right, it’s amazing, and it’s linked here.) There are so many good ones, I just run the gamut. “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer”, that one’s fine by me. The Drifter’s version of “White Christmas.” But the one that probably gets me the most is Nat King Cole and “The Christmas Song.” I could probably keep going on and on.
We could talk about Christmas song until your opening night! And it’s funny, the local Baltimore radio station just switched over to their Christmas songs about an hour ago today. 101.9 is officially on their Christmas tunes!
Greg: Oh really! That’s good to know. Ooh! That reminds me, there’s another one— now I can’t think of any specific, particular song from it, but you know John Waters had a Christmas Album.
What? Did he?
Greg: Oh yes he did! And oh my God, it is hilarious! And it was all artists that at some point in time made these whacky Christmas songs and he brought them all together and made an album. That one is really something.
Now I’ve got to go and look that one up! Do you have a Christmas tradition to kickstart the holiday season in your life or is it gearing up and playing Scrooge that sets Christmas time in motion for you?
Greg: You know it’s interesting because there used to be a whole bunch of things that did that. When my parents were alive and my wife’s parents were alive, we— oh my gosh— it was an event. I have tons of nieces and nephews and brothers and sisters and my wife has quite a few too. So getting ready to go— because her parents were in Silver Spring and my parents were in Richmond; it was basically a production all its own! We got to the point where we would stay up all night on Christmas Eve, wrapping up presents, watching the Alastair Sims Christmas Carol, watching Love Actually and wrapping everything up. Then going to her parents first. We’d go there, we’d have to eat there because if we didn’t, it would break her heart. Then my father’s oldest sister also lived in Richmond so we’d have to go there next and see her, and if we didn’t eat there, then she’d be upset. And then last but not least we’d show up at my parents— and of course you’d have to eat there. And we were dropping off all these presents— the car was PACKED! Our luggage— we learned to pack so frugally because everything was so packed full of presents. We were carrying literal garbage bags, heavy-duty, Glad-garbage bags full of presents. So that used to be the thing. To get us going for the holidays. And now the kids are all grown, my parents aren’t around anymore, her parents aren’t around anymore, and it’s different. Now, there are times where just before we open our first show of Christmas Carol for the season, it’ll hit me.
What do you hope people will take away from coming out to see A Christmas Carol at Chesapeake Shakespeare Company this year?
Greg: I think they’re going to take away that it’s okay to recognize that you’re human. That you’ve got to recognize humanity. That’s the big thing about what makes that show so endearing, it’s a universal thing. We are human. In a way, it’s no different from Shakespeare, it’s all universal concepts. ‘There but for the grace of God go I.’ It’s that basic of a thing, I think.
Do you have a favorite line that you get to deliver as Scrooge?
Greg: Oh gosh. Well, one of my favorite lines is the bad line! “If they would rather die then they’d better do it and decrease the surplus population.” And then I think just the whole scene that I have— well it’s actually two scenes that I have with— Frances (2025 Elena Michelle.) Instead of Scrooge having a nephew, he has a niece, Frances. So I have a dialogue with her that I really do like and then at the end my scene with Bob Cratchit (2025 Samuel Richie.) It’s those two scenes. Oh! And the scene with Marley (Steven Todd Smith.) That’s always good too.
Ah yes, the infamous being told about the three incoming ghost-visits.
Greg: Oh yes! Yes, yes, yes! That’s a really great scene too. And all three of them are great— they’re all very wonderful, very talented people, and it’s a joy to work with them. With the whole cast, but especially them in those scenes.
If you had to sum up your experience here in 2025 at Chesapeake Shakespeare Company, working as Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol using just one word, which word do you use?
Greg: Togetherness. Because we’re all in it together. Over the last many years, and I’m not trying to get political here, but this country wasn’t designed for any one group or any one race or anything else like that. When these guys got together and had that revolution, they wanted us to have something that was going to last and the only way that it was going to was for people to work together, to be together. We can’t accomplish anything any other way. Without that it falls apart. We have tons of history that proves that every single time. And yet there are times when we forget. Maybe it’s a generational thing and we have to learn it all over again. We have to work together, so togetherness.
I love that sentiment and you are absolutely right. Greg, this has been so lovely and thank you again so much!
Greg: I do hope you’ll come and see the show!
I shall do my very best, I am very excited!
Greg: Then I’ll see you at the show!
A Christmas Carol plays November 29th 2025 through December 23rd 2025 with Chesapeake Shakespeare Company— 7 S. Calvert Street in Baltimore, MD. Tickets are available by calling the box office at 410-244-8570 or purchasing them in advance online.
