The Past, A Present Yet to Come
by Matt Schatz
November 13-16, 2025
How did Charles Dickens come to write the holiday classic “A Christmas Carol”? In this witty new play, an ambitious young family man plans an elaborate trick on his old miser of an uncle, Ebenezer Scrooge. To help, he enlists a sarcastic and morally suspect female theatrical producer, and a mumbly writer, who hasn’t had a hit since Nicholas Nickleby.
Produced in Partnership with
Performance Times and Location
November 13-15 @ 7:30 p.m.
November 16 @ 2:00 p.m.
Turnverein Hall in Old Cowtown Museum
Seating in Turnverein Hall is general admission. We can, however, reserve seats for those with mobility issues. Just email us at info@ictrep.org or call 316-612-2543 and let us know the date of your tickets and what kind of accommodations you will need (wheelchair seating, zero-step seating, etc.) and we will take care of it.
Parking at Turnverein Hall
You should park in the west Cowtown Staff and Empire House parking lot (Google Maps link to parking lot entrance). Turn west on Museum Boulevard from Stackman Drive. Follow the signs toward “Botantica Illuminations Parking.” Do NOT park in the main Cowtown Museum lot; continue west on Sim Park Drive just past the Botanica Illuminations entrance. The parking lot will be on your left. It is a 3 minute walk from the parking lot to Turnverein Hall.
If anyone in your party has limited mobility, you may drop them off in front of Turnverein Hall and then park in the lot. Handicap parking is available on the street in front of Turnverein Hall. Detailed instructions are in the flyer below.
What to Expect
A tremendously clever 2023 play which imagines A CHRISTMAS CAROL through a fresh lens – including the business of theater and publishing, as well as the circuitous way that a classic comes to be a classic. Matt Schatz’ play is about a fictional “Fred Scrooge” (nephew to Ebenezer) and how he unexpectedly becomes the catalyst for a guy named Charles Dickens and his long-suffering, incredibly smart theatrical producer, a Jewish woman named J.B. Roth to write a play about Christmas Past, Present, and Yet-To-Come.
Although partially inspired by correspondence between Eliza Davis and Charles Dickens, the rest of this delightful romp through complicated family relations and the complex world behind-the-scenes of publishing and performance — like every play ever written, is almost entirely made up!
“The play is such a delectable holiday treat that you’d have to be a Scrooge not to find joy in it.”
Larchmont Buzz
“The show has the potential to carve its own place as a holiday classic…Inventive, playful, and just plain fun.”
Stage Raw
Cast
Coleman Adams
Fred
Charlene Grinsell
J.B. Roth
Mark Schuster
Charles Dickens
Chris Sharkey
Charles Dickens Standby
Creatives
JR Hurst
Director
Deb Goin
Stage Manager
Dr. Julie Longhofer
Costume Design
Kirk Longhofer
Sound Design
Stan Longhofer
Technical Direction & Lighting Design
About Playwright Matt Schatz
Matt Schatz is a writer and composer. His plays and musicals include A Wicked Soul In Cherry Hill (Geffen Playhouse, Edgerton New Play Award), An Untitled New Play By Justin Timberlake (City Theatre/Pittsburgh CLO), The Door You Never Saw Before (Geffen Stayhouse), The Burdens (The O’Neill, City Theatre, Urbanite Theatre, and others), No One Sings Like You Anymore (Seattle Rep Commission), I Battled Lenny Ross (Ensemble Studio Theatre), Georama (St. Louis Rep, Great River Shakespeare Festival, NYMF), Where Ever It May Be (CLO Spark Festival), Dunkfest ’88 (Ars Nova), Oh, Gastronomy! (Actors Theatre of Louisville), Love Trapezoid (Astoria Performing Arts Center) and The Tallest Building in the World (Luna Stage). Awards include The Kleban Prize in Musical Theatre, The ASCAP Foundation Harold Arlen Musical Theater Award, The Reva Shiner Comedy Award, the New York Musical Festival Outstanding Lyrics Award, and Broadway World Pittsburgh’s Original Script of the Decade Award. Matt has received five Ensemble Studio Theatre/Alfred P. Sloan Foundation New Play Commissions; the most recent is an in-progress science musical with playwright Anna Ziegler. Matt has had television and film projects developed for Fox, USA, TBS, Warner Bros, CBS, EOne, and others and has been in writers’ rooms for shows for AMC, Sony, Netflix, and others. Matt wrote the songs for Season 3 of Kevin Christopher Snipes’ hit Spotify/Gimlet podcast series The Two Princes. He was a writer for Netflix Animation’s upcoming Charlie and the Chocolate Factory adaptation, for which he also co-wrote the pilot with Oscar-winner Taika Waititi. Matt has worked as a story consultant on projects for Waititi, Lynn Nottage, Netflix Features, and Lucasfilm. He’s currently co-writing a pilot for AMC. Matt lives in Los Angeles with his wife Jenna Hymes and their two daughters.