Since its inception in 1963, Trinity Repertory Company has proudly sustained a resident artistic company: a group of local actors, directors, playwrights, choreographers, and other artists who make Trinity Rep what it is today. Anne Scurria, who plays Scrooge, is one of our oldest and longest-serving company members; A Christmas Carol’s director, Tatyana-Marie Carlo, is one of our youngest and most recent. The two have formed an unlikely friendship over the years. Anyone familiar with their work knows that if one is working on a Trinity Rep project, the other is likely not far behind! The following is an abridged transcript of an October 2024 conversation between the two women:
Tatyana-Marie Carlo: I first met Annie because she was my teacher [at the Brown University/Trinity Repertory Company Master of Fine Arts program]. That’s the best way to say it.
Anne Scurria: But I don’t think I ever actually had you in a class?
TMC: I cut another class to be with you, Annie.
AS: Oh yes. She was a directing student, so she had a directing class that conflicted with mine. So, I taught her illicitly [laughter].
TMC: I did ask to switch my schedule, and the school let me. Annie was teaching an acting class to the acting students.
AS: I was teaching Shakespeare at that point, wasn’t I? Or maybe it was something else. I can’t remember.
TMC: That was 20 years ago [laughter].
AS: It was not! [Tatyana was enrolled at Brown/Trinity Rep 2017-2020]
TMC: With everything that happened since then, it feels like 20 years ago.
AS: And then I watched your shows …
TMC: You gave me feedback.
AS: I gave you feedback. And we developed a good relationship over that, because I told her the truth even when she didn’t want to hear it.
TMC: Yeah …
AS: And, sometimes, you know, when you tell people the truth, they can deal with it how they want. Sometimes they change things. Sometimes they don’t. It’s all fine, yeah? It’s just feedback. I helped you, I think, with some movement on one of them. And I loved all the shows I saw that I wasn’t giving you feedback on.
TMC: And I loved all of the shows you were in. I loved you in Native Gardens. What else were you in before that?
AS: Into the Breeches!
TMC: I loved Into the Breeches!
AS: That was fun, that was one of my favorites.
TMC: You weren’t in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, were you?
AS: No. At least, not the one you saw. I was in one ages ago [1997]. Do you mean the 2016 one? I wasn’t in that.
TMC: Yeah, that was the very first play I saw at Trinity.
AS: And then the first show we did together was Sueño. Then we did another show at Trinity called The Inferior Sex.
TMC: And then we went to Hartford Stage and did Pride & Prejudice. That was so fun, and Annie won an award, which made me so happy!
AS: Then I directed a show at Burbage Theatre Company in Pawtucket.
TMC: What was it called, again? Four Ladies?
AS: I like to call it Five Old Whores on a Bench [laughter]. But it was actually titled The Oldest Profession.
TMC: It was so good. I had the time of my life.
AS: That was when Tatyana and I proposed co-directing A Christmas Carol to [Trinity Rep’s Artistic Director] Curt [Columbus]. And he said, “then why don’t you [Tatyana] direct and just use Annie as Scrooge?”
TMC: So you’d be co-directing with me anyway! [laughter]. I’m kidding, I’m kidding.
AS: The great thing about working with Tatyana though, is that she encourages people to contribute. The rehearsal room becomes a collaborative process, and she encourages everyone to bring their two cents. But whether she follows that or not is up to her. It’s still her vision.
I think one reason why Trinity has always committed to having a resident artistic company is so that people can pass down what they’ve learned to the next generation of artists, and us veterans can learn from the younger, newer people too. It’s just fun for people who’ve been around forever, and people who have a new vision to collaborate together.
So yes, we’ve been talking about this since Sueño, which was over two years ago. But [Curt] had other directors lined up already for A Christmas Carol [Aileen Wen McGroddy in 2022, Stephen Thorne in 2023] until this year.
This will be my fourth time playing Scrooge, but the last time I did was 22 years ago.
TMC: And your first show at Trinity was 1979’s A Christmas Carol, right?
AS: That’s right. My very first show!
TMC: How many Christmas Carols have you done?
AS: I have no idea.
TMC: More than 10?
AS: Way more than that. Because back in the 80s, if you weren’t in the first show of the season, you were packed onto A Christmas Carol. Gosh, some of them have been wonderful, and some of them have been …
TMC: What’s the weirdest Christmas Carol you’ve done? I remember hearing there was a 1950s one?
AS: There was! I made an entrance on a moped in the future scene when they’re going through Scrooge’s stuff.
Once, I played Christmas Past on roller skates wearing a long dress, so it looked like I was floating. Which worked really well! Until one day I tripped on my skirt during a [Project Discovery student matinee].
I think I’ve played nearly everyone at some point. I’ve been Scrooge, Marley, Christmas Past, Christmas Present … I never played Christmas Yet to Come. Is that going to be an actual person this year? Because sometimes he’s a puppet, or a shadow, or something.
TMC: Yeah. Future is Annmarie [Kelly]. She’s going to be fabulous.
AS: Oh fun! When [Academy Award-nominated actor and former Trinity Rep artistic director] Richard Jenkins directed it, he had somebody go up onto the lighting grid with a light box. It was a techie guy doing a shadow cast.
TMC: Yeah, our Future’s going to be different. But don’t put how in the notes, we don’t want to give it away!
The cool thing that Trinity does, that other theaters don’t do, is that the show changes every year. They bring in a new director each time with their own version of the story. There are some theaters who have been doing the exact same A Christmas Carol by the same director for like, 30 years. And not just that, they literally use the same costumes, same props, same scenic pieces.
The fact that Trinity invests time and money into a different Christmas Carol each year is a testament to how much we care about and trust this story. Each year is different, and sometimes it’s weird, but the heart is always the same.
AS: Trinity does this show every year because it is very popular, but it also really is just the best Christmas story. There’s no better story about a human being totally changing in one evening in ways we can all hope for and relate to.
