How have your experiences in previous years working with these shows informed your approach to them this season?

Mary: Having directed both A Christmas Carol and Tuna Christmas over multiple years, the strengths and traps of past productions stay with you and you can build on that experience. It is wonderful to have the chance to reflect on the work and to go into the process with those prior experiences in mind.

When I adapted A Christmas Carol 10 years ago, I wanted to get the audience involved in the conflict of the play. I wanted the script to be active and alive, and I became fascinated with Marley and his role in the play. Marley was Scrooge's "only friend," the only one who understands Scrooge's struggle and can guide him through the netherworld and toward redemption. Each year that I directed A Christmas Carol the importance of this relationship became more apparent. Directing also gave me a lot of exposure to the script and helped me to refine it.

Sara: I feel that A Christmas Carol has already become sort of a fairy tale for Christmas, and I've become aware over the years that as these kids come from the schools, it's more exciting if they see themselves onstage. And I love the idea of the spirits looking different every year. Sometimes they're old; sometimes they're young. Sometimes they're tall; sometimes they're short. I'm more worried about adhering to the spirit of the tale and making it look like we look today.

How have the Christmas plays changed with the Hipp? And how have your roles changed within them?

Mary: The Hipp just keeps getting better and better at the work we do. We have wonderfully talented artistic and administrative teams who approach their work with passion and creativity. The Christmas shows have become such an incredible holiday tradition for so many people. People stop me and tell me stories of their first A Christmas Carol and the first Tuna Christmas and about how this has become a tradition in their family or with their friends. It is inspiring to be part of the holiday collective memory in the community.

Sara: I started out playing Christmas Past. One year I played Past and Future. Once I played Mrs. Cratchit, Past and Future all in one show! So, Past had to leave Scrooge before he ever said "Take me away, spirit!" Past was already gone and changing into Mrs. Cratchit.

When I first came to the Hipp, I couldn't be in Carol because it wasn't equity [a production that contracted members of Actors' Equity Association]. Pretty soon after that, they made it an equity show. We only had about five kids. They played the Cratchits, the turkey boy, young Scrooge, everybody. Very few children. Then we started adding matinees, casting more kids, double-casting. It got to be a place with lots of kids. This is my fifth time directing it, and the biggest change is that we adults stay the same age and the kids are getting as old as us. (laughing) I don't realize, I guess, that I'm older too.

Why do you think A Christmas Carol and A Tuna Christmas have such widespread appeal year after year?

Mary: Tuna starts with really terrific storytelling. As a matter of fact, the Tuna creators met in an Austin acting company and shared stories of their families. The show was so wildly popular that the stories kept coming and new Tuna scripts were born. We are all connected by the stories of our families and our friends. We know these characters, and eccentricities and dysfunctions and all, you have to love them.

Sara: [for A Christmas Carol] I guess it's that idea of redemption. It's a uniquely Christmas story. The worst of us - a miserly old scrooge - becomes an open-hearted gift-giver.