10 questions with ‘A Christmas Carol’ performer Tony Lentz

At least Santa Claus only has one hat to wear.

Every holiday season, retired Penn State professor Tony Lentz puts on a one-man production of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” at different locations around Centre County.

Lentz focuses his interpretation on Ebenezer Scrooge’s troubled past and the series of mistakes that lead to him growing old and alone — but he still has to channel the wide variety of supporting characters that give the classic Christmas tale its heft.

The performer, who will give a reading Monday at The State Theatre, recently discussed his favorite character and the secret to telling a good story.

Q: Do you remember how old you were the first time that you read or heard the story of “A Christmas Carol?”

A: I couldn’t swear to it, but I believe it may have been the Alastair Sim version of Scrooge. It was very theatrical, and the script used a lot of the original language. I viewed that version after I began studying the story seriously, and I owe Sim a lot for my own imagining of the story. I first “read” the story by going to hear my late professor and friend Earl Wynn perform the story when I was a freshman at UNC-Chapel Hill in 1965. I hadn’t read Dickens’ words, so I thought I’d take a listen. And here I am, performing the story myself for 38 years now.

Q: What appealed to you about the story and how has that appreciation changed or evolved over time?

A: I realized a few years ago that my old German patriarch of a father had been a key part of my attraction to the story. Difficult times with his own father, the Depression, and his career made him a hard man in many ways. I came to recognize that in a way I was trying to rewrite my father’s story, to celebrate a man who had been hardened by life — but who was able to overcome that hostility to the world and find the joy in life.

Q: How did your career as a performer begin?

A: My career as a performer began doing skits in school assemblies. I got laughs dressing up as an overweight kid. Then a friend volunteered me to help a magician with his tricks at another school assembly. I kept messing up his tricks by finding his magnetic ropes, etc., and luckily he was prepared with one-liners that cracked up the audience. Later, he called the school to ask if the principal would recommend someone to work at his radio station. The principal reminded him of me, and the next thing I knew I had my first job playing hourlong transcriptions of the Grand Old Oprey at WFMX in Statesville, N.C. In another year or so I became a DJ in another small town.

Q: What’s the secret to telling a good story?

A: The secret to telling a story is learning to play with an audience. You have to take the audience with you from one moment to the next, using exaggerated face and voice along with varied timing. The basic model is telling a joke, or setting up a dramatic moment. The key connection is showing the audience that something is coming ... And then playing with those moments with surprises like punch lines or dramatic announcements. So punch lines vary, emphasis varies, you use running gags that repeat, then you play with the audience by switching to a new type of punch line. That’s the core.

Q: You focus your telling of the tale on the mistakes that Scrooge made as a young man. Do you see Scrooge’s story as a cautionary tale or ultimately one of hope?

A: I think I can make the case that the story is both. You can see that Scrooge let his fears and disappointments separate him from human contact, with disastrous results for his happiness. But you can also see that there is hope, because he chooses to change himself when he realized what his choices had done to him. I like to say that the message of the story is that life can be joyous, whatever our situation, if we choose to make it so. One dramatic example was the relationship between my mother and her dying brother. The two of them spent his last days reviewing all the good and bad times they had, and thinking about their lives with a smile and a laugh. There in the shadow of death, there was joy — because there was love.

Q: Many people know this story by heart. Why do you think that people return to it again and again?

A: People (and I) return to the story because it is a good work of literature, because you can approach it over and over and still find something new. I try consciously to explore new meanings, to learn from the audience reaction what has touched them or made them laugh. In the first paragraphs, for example, the narrator says Marley “was dead as a door nail.” I looked it up — a door nail was a big piece of metal on which a door knocker pounded. And in the last part of that chapter Scrooge sees Marley’s face in the door knocker. Clearly the narrator is thinking about the coming scene, giving the audience the sense that he knows something interesting that’s coming soon.

Q: Along those same lines, repetition can sometimes leave things feeling a little stale. How do you keep the material fresh for yourself year after year?

A: You keep things fresh by playing with this audience, this time. Every audience is different, and they will laugh in different places or with different rates of understanding. I remember a story about James Earl Jones playing Othello after dozens of performances. The actor, the interviewer said, was still in search of the essence of the character. He tried to make every time with the part as exciting as the first.

Q: Do you have a favorite character to perform?

A: I guess there are two. I love the little speech of Nephew Fred about Christmas, in contrast to Scrooge’s “Bah! Humbug!” He shows that he’s aware of his problems, but has chosen happiness over money and power. But then there is the delightful Scrooge redeemed, who dances off the walls of his sitting room in sheer manic joy.

Q: What’s your Christmas carol of choice?

A: I’m fond of the boy who sings, “God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen,” but I guess the favorite has to be singing “Silent Night” on Christmas Eve at my church. Everyone stands with candles in the darkness, and then the minister passes the light to people on each side of the altar. The growing brightness of the new candles being lit, the soft words of the song, the image of a sleeping baby, and the idea of hope in the newness of life — that’s a moment of joy and satisfaction. Best enjoyed, of course, in the company of my family!

Q: Do you prefer Christmas cookies or candy canes?

A: I prefer cookies. My wife’s family has the Pennsylvania tradition of making lots of different cookies, lebkuchen, gingerbread, butter cookies cut into shapes, and all the rest. I like my candy canes broken in pieces, and added to Meyer Dairy Mint Crispy ice cream!

This story was originally published December 19, 2015 at 9:03 PM with the headline "10 questions with ‘A Christmas Carol’ performer Tony Lentz."