The traditional journey

Actor Timothy Landfield showed up sporting an eerie-looking translucent Halloween mask, a wig and angel wings on the first day of rehearsal for South Coast Repertory’s production of “A Christmas Carol.”

Another year he arrived clad in a tutu and the fat suit he wears for his role as the Ghost of Christmas Present. It’s an annual tradition of sorts for Landfield, who has been a part of South Coast’s “Christmas Carol” cast for the past eight or nine years — he’s lost count.

“I have to come up with something more outrageous every year,” he said.

In its 29th year, South Coast Repertory’s annual staging of “A Christmas Carol” begins today. Performances continue through December. The Christmas classic has become an annual tradition not only for the South Coast Repertory audiences who attend the play each year, but also for the cast, which is full of 10- and 20-year veterans.

Each year, Landfield’s family comes to watch him perform in the show on Christmas Eve.

“We made that our tradition, then we stuff stockings and the kids get up in the morning and then I get to be a father,” he said.

Playing the Ghost of Christmas Present is physically demanding — he wears a 30-pound fat suit for the role, but his children enjoy seeing the production each year, so he keeps at it, Landfield said.

“They won’t let me off the hook,” he said.

No man is more associated with South Coast’s storied production of “A Christmas Carol” than Hal Landon Jr., who has played Ebenezer Scrooge since 1980.

Landon has had an extensive acting career. He played Ted’s father in ’80s film “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure” and he also had a bit part in the David Lynch cult classic “Eraserhead,” but he comes back to South Coast Repertory each year to play Scrooge.

“It’s just a terrific role for an actor, when you travel from the most miserly of men through a journey in the course of the play to a kind and giving person,” Landon said. “It’s a challenge for an actor and as a result, fun to do.”

A founding member of South Coast Repertory, Landon was first picked for the part because he most closely matched the physical characteristics of Scrooge, he said.

“I was thin and bald,” he said.

Before he takes the stage, Landon sometimes likes to listen to rock music to get him motivated for the performance — Bruce Springsteen’s “Born to Run” is one of his favorites.

Actor Richard Doyle estimates he has been a part of South Coast’s production of “A Christmas Carol” for about 27 years. For the past 15 or 20 years, he’s played the Ghost of Christmas Past.

Doyle’s daughter, who is now in college, also was a cast member when she was about 12, playing one of the Cratchit children.

“It’s been kind of fun, but it always put some strain on Christmas — Dad was always in the production for Christmas, but then, Dad always had a job at Christmas time, too.”

One of his favorite things about being in the production is hearing from families who take their children to the show each year, because their parents took them, Doyle said.

He also gets a kick out of working with the children who are part of the “Christmas Carol” cast each year, he said.

“Seeing the young people come in and come on to the show and seeing them develop as young artists is very rewarding,” Doyle said.

IF YOU GO

Tickets for “A Christmas Carol” can be purchased at www.scr.org, by phone at (714) 708-5555 or by visiting the box office at 655 Town Center Drive in Costa Mesa. Performances begin at 7:30 tonight and continue through Dec. 27. Tickets are $24 to $58.

BRIANNA BAILEY may be reached at (714) 966-4625 or at brianna.bailey@latimes.com.