Q: Why did you choose HUMBUG!: A Menlo Carol as your first production as Menlo’s Upper School Drama Director?

A: I wanted to begin with an original adaptation of a known story that has real staying power — something that could carry both joy and weight. Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol because he believed a good story could change people’s hearts. He saw the darkness around him — inequality, indifference — and used fiction to push back against it. That impulse feels just as urgent now.

Q: How does the show reflect your vision for the Menlo Drama program?

A: My hope for Menlo Drama is that students become makers, creators, interpreters — that they feel ownership of what we build together. Whether we’re starting from scratch or adapting strong source material, the goal is the same: to give students real agency in shaping the work and tell stories that matter.

Q. What has surprised you most about this experience?

A: Half of the company is made up of first-year students — and they came in working at an incredibly high level. They were pushing the pace, asking really smart questions, and setting the tone. It put the upperclassmen on notice in the best way, and raised the bar for the whole ensemble.

Also, there’s been a genuine sense of mutual respect — across grades, across roles. That’s not always a given, and it’s made the work better at every stage.

Q. Why should people come see the show and what do you hope audiences take away from it?

A. Our show has more than a few surprises in store. We’ve worked hard to play with the audience’s expectations — to stretch the idea of what A Christmas Carol is and can be. Theatrically, emotionally, structurally — this isn’t the version you think you know.

This adaptation began as a conversation. We started with Dickens’s novel and followed our instincts toward something new — something that felt true to this ensemble and this moment. Together, we fumbled our way through the attic of Scrooge’s mind, asking what shaped them, what broke them, and where the light might break through. What emerged was less about ghosts and more about grace — a story of reckoning, renewal, and the quiet hope that change is always possible.

I hope people leave the theater feeling moved and a little more open — to each other, to transformation, to the possibility that even the most closed-off heart can shift.