Fifty & Fabulous

Discovering North Carolina

Ira David Wood III
By Mary Jekielek Insprucker
December 2005

Not many will have a day named after us, let alone a whole week. However, the city of Raleigh celebrates Ira David Wood III Week the second week in December every year as proclaimed by its mayor.

Ira David Wood III

I guess that’s what happens when National Business Yearly names you one of the fifty most influential people in the Triangle. Or, if you’re a Medal of Arts award winner, director of the Opening Ceremonies for the US Olympic Festival, or a performer at the Kennedy Center. Of course, it could just be because you are endeared for playing the part of Scrooge for the past 31 years in Theatre In The Park’s annual production of A Christmas Carol.

Additionally, Wood directs the mammoth production, for which he also adapted the script and composed the original music. “Charles Dickens meets Archie Bunker,” is how Wood describes his adaptation. “Scrooge is not morose; he just takes delight in wrecking Christmas,” said the 58-year-old who reflected same in his version, a show whose main purpose is to serve as a family experience.

In fact, Wood was looking at a photo of his father when he wrote the lullaby sung by Cratchit to Tiny Tim. “The last time I saw my dad was when I was 12 and he tucked me in,” said Wood, the founder and executive director of Theatre In The Park. “I wrote the words to the lullaby saying what any parent would say to any child.”

The cast has gone to England and France to perform A Christmas Carol. Several decedents of Dickens have seen the production and given it their seal of approval. The show has been seen by people from as far away as Hawaii and California.

However, even outside NC, Wood is recognized near and far. He tells the story about standing in the Forbidden City in China and someone coming up to him and asking if he was Scrooge. A similar occurrence took place in New York when he was recognized while out to dinner. “I was with my daughter (Evan Rachel Wood) who was nominated for a Golden Globe and SAG award, and her boyfriend, actor Jamie Bell, and yet they recognized me! That made my entire trip,” he laughed.

After one performance, Wood was visited by a woman who had terminal cancer and was told she only had three months to live. “I asked her if I’d see her next year,” said Wood. The woman mildly answered, “Okay.” “You know what? She made it back for three years,” said Wood. “You never know what healing you might be doing with the audience. You may touch a Christmas memory. You may help them lose the baggage they walked in with.”

Having started playing Scrooge in his 20s and now nearing 60, Wood admits to a few aches and pains during his performances. “I’ve learned to trim back a bit and only do the necessary gestures. But I’ve become more focused and present the character with more depth and dimension than when I was younger.”

Wood, who would still like to play the Phantom and Mark Twain, said mature dimension is also present in 15 on-stage performers, who range in age from 60 to 70. In fact, Wood encouraged several of them to get involved. “I’ll ask, ‘so these are your golden years; just how golden are they?’ Many times, I get a sigh and a reply that they’re horrible. That’s when I encourage them to get into the stream of living.

“As adults, we’ll sit on the sofa and watch the kids open presents under the Christmas tree, when most of us wish we could just slip our fanny down and be them. One of the longest moves you make is going from the sofa to the floor, but it will be the best move because the child inside of you will come out and play. We shouldn’t have hardening of the attitudes.”

Where did he think he’d be at 50? “The thought was so far out of reach for me, but now that I’m staring in the face of 60, it seems like only yesterday I was playing cowboy and Indians on Christmas morning. Time passes with a twinkle of the eye.” Then Wood references Scrooge’s philosophy that it’s what we do with the time we have that gives value to our lives.

Now what would Scrooge say about Social Security? In character voice, Wood replied, “I appreciate all the help I can get.” And what would Ebenezer think about assisted living. “I appreciate all the help I can get.” As far as the penny-pinchers’ advice to seniors, “Celebrate!”

“There’s a little bit of Scrooge in all of us around the Christmas season,” said Wood. “And I’m sure there’s more than a few adults who would like to hit Tiny Tim in the face with a lemon meringue pie because he’s just too sweet.” Yet, the holiday is golden. “It’s obvious to me that Christmas is for joy and celebration.”

Woods candle in the wind moment comes during every performance when over 2,000 audience members seem to stop breathing when the cast calls Scrooge over from the side. “Scrooge starts to sing Born is the King, then stops, dropping his face in his hands,” said the native North Carolinian. “The cast picks it up for him and then goes into Joy to the World. It’s a force that feels like the audience is lifting up their hands and pushing you back; it is what Christmas feels like.”

A Christmas Carol runs from Dec.6 -14 at the Raleigh Memorial Auditorium. For information: http://www.theatreinthepark.com