A graduate of Temple, Donovan Hagins returns to the Gordon Theater years after his professional debut on the same stage under the direction of the late Joseph A. Walker. He has since performed with Freedom Theater, InterAct Theater, Walnut Street Theater, Azuka Theater, and First World’s Theater in Philadelphia. He has also worked with Arena Stage, Ford’s Theater and Imagination Stage in the Washington D.C. area. Donovan’s television credits include principal roles on HBO’s The Wire and CBS’s Hack. He dedicates his career to the memory of his mother, Vermell Hagins.
The difficulty with Scrooge is that there is this stereotypical thought about the character, that he's this mean old guy who's just ugly, bitter and evil inside and then at the very end, by some miraculous experience he becomes good. I think that's kind of cartoonish and I don't think that's what Dickens wrote. Our challenge here is to show the bitter Scrooge but find elements, moments in the show where his humanity peeks through, where we see him fighting with the very humanity which is what makes him who he is.
This play raises many questions but one of the most important is how do we understand our purpose or responsibility to take care of our brothers and sisters, regardless of their creed or color. Camden City is a mecca of the social ills that plagued Charles Dickens' world as he acted as a conduit for change. Dickens wants us to take a hard look at ourselves, to believe we are our brother’s keeper... We can change, we can reconnect to our communities, we can make a difference.
I think at its core, this play is really a love story. It's about loving ourselves enough to forgive, to reach out to our fellow man, and on another level, it is a love story about Camden. Barry's love for this city allowed me to find the opportunites for love in this play, and it is exactly what Dickens would have wanted. Christmas, as he describes it, is 'the only time I know of...when men and women seem to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys.'
I came to my art through nursing, and the focus has always been healing and education. It is a joy for me to work in community-based projects where the arts integrate into education, health care, and community-building.
Even though A Camden Christmas Carol is only a short running production of perhaps 7 or 8 performances, the people who are crafting this production...and the way they are crafting it impressed me. They have shown me that they are ready to give this show unlimited commitment.
The cast is fantastic and the amazing artists and technical crew are bringing so much to this production. It's tremendous work pulling this all to the home stretch, of course, but we are really proud of what this great team has been able to accomplish.
After working so much in television, it's great to develop a production for the stage, especially one so challenging as A Camden Chirstmas Carol. We have a large cast which ranges in age from 6 to 60 and the show includes puppets and extensive multimedia content. Blending all of that into a seamless and enjoyable presentation for the audience takes a tremendous team effort from the cast and crew that can seem overwhelming at times; but, when you see it all come together at showtime, you remember what makes theater such an exhilarating medium to work in!
