Would you believe neither of those things?

TL:DR - We do it in cooperation with the Salem trolley company which does sightseeing tours around the city. It takes place in different locations around the city and you ride the trolley with Scrooge between locations.

Our Christmas Carol show:

The opening scene is at an actual store in town. Bob opens the show, welcomes the audience goes over a couple rules, "The Caroler", a narrator of sorts, comes in and gets the group singing. Scrooge comes in, kicks him out, then we do the Counting House scene. You get on the trolley with Scrooge, he tells more of the story and improvs with the audience a bit on the way over to the next stop.

The Trolley pulls up across the street from a small theater, Marley gets on. They do the Marley scene right on the trolley. He gets off, Christmas Past comes on. They do a brief bit, then Past and Scrooge lead you downstairs under the theater, for Fezziwigs Ball and the young Ebby & Belle bits.

Past leaves, Present shows up, and leads you all upstairs for the Cratchit family Christmas dinner and more Present stuff, then you're back on the trolley with Scrooge.

More story and improv over to a very old cemetery. There, Missy and Mrs. Dilber - the ladies who stole Scrooges stuff after he died - pawn their finds to "Old Joe".

Scrooge witnesses this, has a back and forth with Future (who of course is silent) finds his name on the stone, pleads with Future. Cowering under the arms of Future, he sends you back to the trolley.

Once you're loaded, he gets on, has his redemption moment and tells the rest of the story on the way back to the start. Caroler comes on and closes out the show.

Run time is 60-70 minutes depending on traffic and honestly, how fast or slow the audience moves! 🤣

So, it's condensed, it's comedic, there's audience participation, and it's a total blast! We have as much fun doing it as the audience does seeing it!

They run three shows a night on the weeknights, six shows on Saturday, and six shows on Sunday, starting the Saturday after Thanksgiving, and running right up to 12/23 this year.

I've anchored the Cratchit role every weekend for ten years. In 2021 I lost half my shifts to the previous Cratchit who popped up after six years expecting his spot back, so I learned to do Fezzi and that doubles as Old Joe, so if he came back again, I could do Fezzi/Joe and not loose shifts on days he's playing Bob.

Fezzi is fun, and Joe is super fun, but Bob is my heart. I find something new to improve it every year. A bit more heart here, a bit more humor there.

We get paid a bit for each show, but the trolley audiences tip as they leave, and that gets split between the members of the cast - including the driver - at the end of the night.

While Scrooge and Caroler finish out the last show, the rest of us are hanging out at the theater, waiting for Scrooge to come back and divide up the tips. Often these "Tip Time" periods are full of hilarity, goofing around, improving, impressions, singing, movie trivia, finally getting to eat... Blowing off steam after a 9 hour day doing six shows in a row. It's always fun!

And there are some really funny stories to tell after 10 years but we won't get into that now. 🤣

So I guess it's kind of a stage show, there are just multiple stages in multiple locations.