A Christmas Carol - meet co-producer Lloyd Bittinger

How did you get involved with the show?

I've been volunteering at the Little Theatre of Alexandria for over 20 years in many different areas of the theatre, and currently serve as the president. I also produced A Christmas Carol in 2012 and 2015, so it's a familiar show for me to work on. Last year I was the sole producer with our director Rachael Hubbard. It was a very successful show - a sellout! But, it was very tough being the sole producer. This year I was going to take a break but was asked to co-producer along with Russell Wyland. He's one of the best to work with and I agreed to work with him, but only with him. Besides, this year we have a new director, Mike Baker, and he's also one of the best. We also have an amazing musical director in Linda Wells. So I'm hoping we're a dream team!

What are some of the challenges in working on this show?

Two biggies - the size of the cast: The show has 32 actors in it. And, of those 32 actors 16 are under the age of 18, some as young as 6. So there's a very wide age range of people who have to be whipped into shape to make a good show. My experience in producing two of the previous shows is that even the young actors come around and are amazing to work with. Plus, we also have very dedicated parents who assist and two staff positions called the Young Actor Coordinators - Leah & Olivia Hays. We all pull together to make it work.

What do you hope the audience takes away from the show?

A Christmas Carol has truly become an Alexandria tradition during the holidays. There are hundreds of people who come to see the show every year, year after year. We try to put enough fun elements into the show, like music, singing, dancing, and special effects (fog, snow, lightning, etc.) to make it a warm and fun experience, in spite of Scrooge himself! We want the audience to leave the theatre feeling happy, singing a song, and loving having been there. We want this to be the start of their holiday period.