A Christmas Carol at Ford's Theater

I watched the 'Christmas Carol' last night with a good friend, Rachel Murdock. We not only watched a Christmas Carol, but we watched it in the same theater that President Lincoln was shot. OK, that may sound a little morbid, but it was nonetheless fun to watch a play in the same theater where history had been made.

The story only gets better... We not only watched the play, but we were ushers for the play. Rachel had found a great deal where if you ushered then you could watch the show for free. At the end of the night, I may have enjoyed ushering more than I enjoyed the show.

We showed up early for 'Volunteer Usher Training' where we soon discovered that we were the youngest ushers, by atleast 40 years (No joke-maybe slightly). This was no fly by the night type of gig, these ushers had been doing this for years (and they were good!). As soon as the assignments were read you had to volunteer for them (hands raised high in the air and waving), unfortunately for us we were not as accustomed to this, so we missed out on the prime ushering spots of scanning tickets and ushering in the balcony. Nonetheless we were assigned to the Orchestra seating, where the fun began.

I was a little nervous after the training, as there were a lot of things to remember: 1.) Right side is odd, 2) Left side is even 3.) Help them to their seats. At this point I was quizzed by one of the veteran ushers asking me where seat 101 was. I nearly fainted, I had no idea there was to be a quiz, and even better the lady was serious! I quickly guessed, and seeing the pain in my eyes, she let it pass; only to correct me multiple times throughout the night in improper ushering. For future reference- no pointing, only full hand gestures, and give them a program at the top of the stairs, not at the bottom. The old ladies were especially worried because it was our first time, so they posted a watcher on us to make she we were doing things right. Come to find out, there is a 'secret society' of ushers across the DC area who do this all the time, at all of the theaters around, and we were encroaching on their secret. Needless to say, the real staff loved us, and told us of the funny tales of the 'old secret usher society', but plead with us to come back because the patrons loved us. For Rachel and I, this was heaven: talk to complete strangers about their lives, and then when we were done, we just showed them to their seats. We quickly learned why none of the ladies wanted the first door orchestra seating post-you have to hold the doors open to the outside at the end of the plya-IT WAS FREEZING. Overall, however, Rachel and I lauged during the whole process. It was one crazy night of ushering.

We could have left at that point and been fully satisfied, but the cherry on top was that we were able to stay and watch the performance (or atleast what we could see...) The overall production was great, and there were a lot of great effects. If you get the CHANCE, you should definitely go and see it while it is playing. Here are a couple of shots of the play and the theater:

Here is an audience shot of Fords Theater. It was great to be able to get there early and to walk around, with basically no one there. It was really awe inspiring to think that this is the actual theater where Lincoln had been shot. A definite to do when in Washington.



Here is the 'President's box where Lincoln had sat. We got a little private tour of it (not actually in it but describing it) Apparently it is decorated the same way it was the night Lincoln had been shot. There are three original pieces still a part of the exhibit: The couch, Mrs. Lincoln's chair (to the right of the couch), and the picture of George Washington. Apparently they put the picture of George Washington because it was still a symbol of the Office of the President (a makeshift seal of sorts). The blue flag is a the flag of the treasury, and is only there because they were trying to find flags in preparation for the President to come. The boy they sent out to find flags brought this one back, and because of a lack of time they stuck with it (little did the boy know that his story would be told someday)

 Like I said the props and effects were great. Here scrooge is approached by Marley, there were some great actors.

 I am all for artistic interpretation (to a point), but couldnt stop laughing at the ghost of the past. It was a little odd to have her floating around the stage-but it ended up working. Here is a little hint: there is a doll of the fairy hanging in the cart of one of the merchants in the market-a little freaky. I just had to have this picture, just for the memory sake.

Here is the cast in the end. Overall a great job. It was great to watch it and get more in the Christmas Spirit. If you have some time in this schedule filled time of year, this is a great way to spend an evening. And if you want to watch it for free you can dare volunteer to be an usher (just beware!).