Associate Professor Jed Diamond came to the University of Tennessee in 2005 after a two-decade run as a freelance teacher and stage actor in New York City and regional repertory theatre. He was founding faculty and associate director of the Shakespeare Lab at the New York Shakespeare Festival (Joseph Papp’s The Public Theatre) and of the Actors Center. He also taught at multiple other New York schools, including Playwrights Horizons Theater School and Stella Adler Studio of Acting. He has an MFA in Acting from the prestigious NYU/Tisch School of the Arts Graduate Acting Program and served as Head of Acting at UT for 18 years.
For the ninth season, Jed soulfully inhabits the legendary Ebenezer Scrooge in the gorgeous Clarence Brown Theatre (CBT) production of “A Christmas Carol,” one of the most well-known yuletide stories of modern times. From Jacob Marley’s chain-clad emergence in green light and smoke to Scrooge’s bed disappearing into the stage floor, all manner of richly layered stagecraft and professional artist performances thrill sold-out houses during its seasonal run.
West Knoxville Lifestyle spoke with the veteran interpreter of the character that Dickens called “a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner,” whose miraculous story of error and redemption sends audiences joyfully out into the winter night with a renewed vow to keep Christmas in their heart all year long.
What makes a Clarence Brown Theatre production so special?
As a company associated with training programs, we stand out nationally. Thanks to [six-time Academy Award-nominated director] Clarence Brown and his wife, Marian, we have an endowment, and our organizational structure is unique. We are the only program in the country in which a professional LORT Theatre (League of Resident Theatres) is fully integrated with the department of theatre. Akin to a teaching hospital, we have a dual mission of training within the context of a professional producing organization. There are other programs that are associated but not combined with a professional theatre. This inevitably leads to a tussle between producing and training, over resources, whether to use students in shows, etc. We embrace this tension, and are dedicated to using our students, which allows us to do big shows, among other good things. Without our students, we simply could not produce at the level we do. With around 30 production staff and a faculty of 15 who are also working professionals, we are a small group running a very large production and training organization.
On every big show, we have students, local professionals, and actors, directors, designers and choreographers from all over the country, which connects our students with a national professional network. This past year, we had over 20 Tony nominees or winners come to work in our theatre. Clarence Brown eloquently stated what still motivates us: “The mixing up of young actors and designers with first-rate professionals is manifestly the way to teach future theatre artists.” We recruit eight actors nationally every other year from about 800 to 1,000 auditions, and we take in eight designers in the alternating years. Our MFA in Acting program is often ranked among the top 25 master’s programs in the world. This year we have a Tony nominee and an Emmy winner who are recent alumni of our acting program and two former undergrads who are on Broadway right now. Our success has a lot to do with the strong support of the University and our amazing audiences who love our theatre and understand our model. They love seeing the energy of the students and watching them grow. There are people who have been coming to see “A Christmas Carol” on our stage for 30 years and more.
What has been your journey with Ebenezer Scrooge?
I was first cast as Scrooge at the age of 35 in 1993 in Syracuse. It’s what I call an operatic role, as it takes one through an extraordinary spectrum of experience and emotion, from meanness to awakening to ecstatic joy and love. It’s magnificent to inhabit. The novella is one of the great works of art in English literature and countless adaptations make it the most produced play in the English-speaking world. It captures enduring human truths with a light but profound touch. When I go out to greet audiences after some shows, folks always say how moved they were, that it made them both laugh and weep.
Every year I read the novella and every year it connects in a different way because of my time of life, my experiences and our world. I rediscover it each year with the other actors and I just try to let it carry me. Great stories can do that again and again. It is Scrooge who reinhabits me every year at about this time, creeping into my imagination with increasing insistence as we work on the show. This story always creates joy and community. I tell our students, “Just wait, you’re going to have a connection with the audience, with community and with celebration like you’ve not had with any other show.”
That’s in the Dickens’ tale itself.
What can you tell us about the backstory of a play that is so well-known?
Dickens captured art magic in a bottle connected to Christmas, which he loved. He had 10 children and celebrated with his family with days of games and putting on plays. That spirit of fun comes through this story. Many people don’t know that Christmas was dying out in industrial Victorian England, and that Dickens is partly responsible for reviving it. Many current Christmas traditions, like holiday cards, and holly and ivy come from Dickens, and he was sometimes called Father Christmas.
Also, perhaps more than any other writer, Dickens’ works affected British society. “Bleak House” led to reforms in the justice system. “David Copperfield” is the first great novel that starts for 75 pages with the internal life of a child. Dickens had this tremendous capacity to bring children to the fore of life, asking, “What are we if not caretakers of our children?” Victorian London was full of malnourished children like Tiny Tim, who has rickets, and Dickens’ work led to reforms in child labor laws and the care of children generally. He wrote “A Christmas Carol”after going to Cornwall to witness children working in the mines 10 to 12 hours a day. He came home to write a social tract and as he walked (he often covered 20 miles a day through the streets and environs of London) he conceived this story as a much more powerful way to awaken charity and care for children. The story is also about the relationship of industry to the division of wealth and the poverty that came from it. We really need this story, in my opinion. Despite having huge amounts of money, Scrooge is impoverished in love. He must face himself and the prospect of a lonely, pathetic death. We go with him on this dark journey, but the darkness is what awakens him to all the light of life, as it does for us also.
Tell us about the production value.
With CBT mainstage productions, we produce on a Broadway scale and at a very high standard in terms of all the elements of spectacle–light, sound, set, costumes, etc. We’ve tried different adaptations of the novella over many years, and we have found that this script, which originated at the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, is by far the most coherent and dramatic. The set is a stunning evocation of industrial Victorian England with a central theme of a huge clock evoking time. This year we’ve made a few changes in staging that will make the show a new experience for returning audiences. Oh, and also, the script beautifully integrates traditional Christmas carols into the story, with rich arrangements sung by an ensemble of 35 people in part harmonies. This is a huge part of the emotional lift and heft of the show and brings the Christmas season soaring into your heart. Many audience members comment that when the voices strike out into the house, that’s when they are just swept away.
What do you wish for your audiences to experience at this production?
Because so many people, especially young people, are on screens so much, when they come to the theatre with live actors, something happens that affects them powerfully. We find an energy in our audience that is a celebration of community. Returning audiences already know how special it is and the amazing feeling when the show ends and the audience comes to their feet to sing “Joy to the World” with us.
If you haven’t been to the Clarence Brown, come see this production of “A Christmas Carol.” You will be glad you did. We are an important part of Knoxville culture and can become a wonderful performing arts and entertainment option for you. People come and bring their children and their grandchildren. It’s an incredible privilege and joy to get to do a show that year to year sells to the walls for our wonderful community. It’s truly an event. Come out to see a play whose message is eternal and positive.
For tickets now through Dec. 20, visit ClarenceBrownTheatre.com
For an encore, can you preview what’s new in 2026 for your program?
Thanks to our community and UT, in the midst of Covid we raised the funds to build a brand new, state-of-the-art theatre! In January, we are opening the Jenny Boyd Theatre, a flexible 350-seat theatre [approximate seating for both traditional and in the round seating]. We will debut this intimate venue with the famous musical “Cabaret.”
The Jenny Boyd replaces the storied Carousel Theatre. It is simply incredible that we were able to do this. It is such a testament to the people in this town and their commitment to the arts. By making this theatre possible, they have ensured the vitality of theatre and the arts at UT and in Knoxville for many years to come.