One of the first professional plays Amber D. Gray ever saw was A Christmas Carol as a grade schooler on a field trip.
So when the Alley Artistic Associate asks kids at student matinees how many of them just saw their first play ever and sees hands go up across the room, it’s special.
“It really means a lot that we are somebody’s first play, first experience. Our education department is really good at recruiting schools to come see it,” says Gray who is directing Alley Artistic Director Rob Melrose’s adaptation of the Charles Dickens work for the second year in a row.
The Alley asks that audience members be at least 6 years old, but Gray says they’ll leave it up to a parent’s discretion. While there are some scary parts, Gray says, that hasn’t proven to be a deal breaker for most children in attendance.
“The show is sprinkled with magic tricks, illusion with they love, and laughter. Marley and the Ghost of Christmas Future [presumably the two scariest] are among the most popular ones that kiddoes are excited to meet during our talkbacks.”
And speaking of those magic tricks, there are still several in the show, just not quite as many as they first undertook their actors to do. “In first year we had more magic tricks. We are not trained magicians. Some of them didn’t work out as we planned,” says Gray, laughing.
As part of the matinee talkbacks, Gray says they get as many actors and crew members as possible out to talk to the children as possible. “There’s always a long line out to the back of the theater with questions.”
And many of those questions have to do with how they do the magic.
“We do tell them the secret to the magic. We ask them to keep it a secret,” says Gray, a proud Katy Taylor High graduate who went on to get her theater degree in Illinois before returning to the Houston area.
“Rob’s adaptation is just something to see with the Victorian costumes, the music, the choreography. The set looks like a Christmas wonderland. People will want to come back to see this show every year.”
A Christmas Carol continues through December 28 at various times and dates with matinees and evening performances at Alley Theatre, 615 Texas Avenue. For more information, call 713-220-5700 or visit alleytheatre.org. $36 – $138.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2025.