Live Performance

How I got hooked on Patrick Stewart

The Next Generation first aired when I was in college. As a long time fan of The Original Series (TOS), I was primed out of some sort of misplaced loyalty, not to like the new series. So for most of its original run, I mostly ignored it. Then one day in 1994, my friend Shari, a die-hard Next Generation fan, asked if I'd go with her to see Patrick Stewart performing his one man version of A Christmas Carol at the La Jolla Playhouse. I'd watched enough episodes of the Next Generation to at least know that Patrick Stewart had played Captain Picard and Shari dutifully filled me in on his extensive theater background, so I thought, why not?

His performance blew me away. On stage was not Captain Picard, but Scrooge, Tiny Tim, Fezziwig, the Ghosts and most of the characters from the Dickens story. It was just an actor, a chair, and very few props but it kept me mesmerized for the entire show.