Jack Crowley ’24 | Rohith Tsundupalli ’24
Scrooge Chapel, where faculty and students reenact A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, is one of the most beloved holiday traditions at EA. Each year, the performance incorporates new twists related to popular culture, specifically with the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future. Scrooge Chapel relieves stress that students experience during upcoming midterm exams and brings the EA community together for the holiday season.
Dickens’ A Christmas Carol opens in London, England where the miserable protagonist, Ebenezer Scrooge, struggles to embrace the holiday season with its emphasis on kindness and empathy. On Christmas Eve, he is visited by three ghosts: the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future. Scrooge, as a result of his interactions with the ghosts, learns to alter his cold and disapproving attitude toward others and champion the season of giving.
According to John Powell ’70 who was interviewed in the “Scrooge Chapel 2020 – A Retrospective”, the “first [Scrooge Chapel] started in 1982 as a fairly new event. John Muir had started it, who was the first director of the arts.” Ever since then, it has become one of the most widely cherished traditions at EA.
Photo courtesy of 2007 December Scholium Issue
Molly Konopka, an Upper School Latin teacher, has played the role of Ebenezer Scrooge for the past seven years, excluding Powell’s return to the role and the COVID-19 pandemic. She believes that Scrooge Chapel represents an “enduring theme; everyone should go through points in their life where they improve on themselves and become more aware of humanity and less aware of themselves.”
Daniel Clay, Middle and Upper School Theater Department Chair and director for the performance, echoes Konopka’s sentiment, saying, “Scrooge Chapel is one of our best traditions in my opinion. When we’re all a few days from the end of a long semester, we get to gather together and celebrate the Holiday in a way that’s fun, but also asks us to remember what the season is actually about.”
The production also provides the student body with an opportunity to view their teachers in new and unconventional ways. “I admire the teachers that give up their time to be in the performance. They are as busy as the students, but they take time to be silly and share a different side of themselves with the community,” says Clay.
Konopka elaborates on this, explaining that “it allows students to see their teachers in a different light rather than being authority figures and instead being figures of the community, but students don’t often see us in this way.”
Photo courtesy of EA communications
Likewise, the chapel production of A Christmas Carol also serves as an enjoyable way to get into the holiday spirit. Khoa Tran ’24 deems Scrooge Chapel one of his “favorite chapels because it is always a fun way to get into the holiday spirit.” Kaleigh Criville ’24 relates, commenting that she “loves it when all of the teachers dress up because it gets [her] in a festive and lighthearted mood.”
Students love to see their teachers, both present and retired, take part in Scrooge Chapel. Gautam Ketkar ’24 expresses his appreciation for Reverend Bert Zug’s performance in 2018, saying, “The time when Reverend Zug came back to EA dressed up as Jason Kelce from the Eagles Superbowl parade was legendary.” Criville, on the other hand, “especially loves it when Mrs. Konopka takes part in it.”
Scrooge Chapel not only provides joy to EA faculty and students during the holiday season but also encourages gratitude and thoughtfulness in the community. As Konopka notes from her interview in the “Scrooge Chapel 2020 – A Retrospective”, “Scrooge Chapel is a magically written piece of art that teaches lessons that are so timely, and yet so basic. They are ideals that we want our students to have, remember, and carry with them.”