BETHEL - When meeting the tall, handsome, square-jawed James Ludwig out of makeup, it is hard to imagine him as a drawn, crotchety old miser.Daylight Raiders, or portraying a number of roles in Mike Nichols's Tony-winning original cast of Spamalot, Mr Ludwig is accustomed to transforming himself.NewArts debut of A Christmas Carol, which recently relocated under Director Michael Unger's purview after his 16-year run directing the holiday favorite at the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, N.J. The show is being presented by the Newtown-based arts and resiliency organization in partnership with the Walnut Hill Community Church in the Bethel church's theater while the Newtown High School auditorium renovations continue this winter.Spamalot for a three-week run. He will return to Newtown after Thanksgiving to immerse himself locally through the end of the run on December 22.A Christmas Carol has found a new and special impresario in director Unger.A Christmas Carol is, he's just a sucker for the story.The Happy Hour Guys, along with the Jimmy Stewart wartime biopic short, which is being shopped around in the hope of being picked up by a major studio for a full motion picture treatment.A Christmas Carol, in association with Walnut Hill Community Church of Bethel, is running with dual casts December 9-22. To order advance tickets, click here.

But whether it is ladling on bright body paint as a touring member of Blue Man Group, donning a leather bomber jacket in a new Jimmy Stewart biopic titled

This holiday season, he will become the miserly Scrooge in the

Mr Ludwig is very familiar with this version of the show, having participated in the McCarter production with Mr Unger playing roles including nephew Fred and Bob Cratchit.

This winter, however, will be his first crack at playing Scrooge.

"I do have a youthful look," he admitted, "but hey, Scrooge has been played by any number of actors, including Mr Magoo. I've even heard of women playing Scrooge. But no matter what, I think the message the character delivers will come through strongly. I know I can handle the part."

According to his iMDb bio, Ludwig was born in the Philippines and grew up in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. He holds a Master in Acting from the University of Washington in Seattle, and started his professional career in New York City, where he has lived since 1993.

But in a brief chat during a break in rehearsal at Walnut Hill Community Church, Ludwig said from an acting standpoint, he was a relative late bloomer.

"I grew up in a very rural area in a community that didn't support the arts at all, so I did a teeny bit of theater as a very young child and then left it behind," he said. "I was a premed student at the University of Michigan, kind of going through the motions, doing well, but not happy."

Then he took an acting class.

"It wasn't like angels sang and fireworks went off, but there was this internal nod, like, oh, it's this. It was like a switch was thrown," he said.

Ludwig and Unger agree that the venue at Walnut Hill is much more suited for the intimate experience audiences should enjoy when attending such an oft-performed classic.

"Even though the stage is quite expansive, the audience is very close, even in the back few rows," he said. "The McCarter is a very long and deep house, and the production is very far away from the furthest audience members. It's a beautifully playable house, so I'm really excited to be here."

Immediately following his visit to the Bethel theater, where he met a number of the cast members and was blocked through several scenes, he flew off to a touring production of

Although he presents as youthful, Ludwig said at 48, he is feeling his age. So as he transitions chronologically, he views the opportunity to play Scrooge as a transition point - of maybe more as a portal to the balance of his career.

"Obviously I'm coming out of the younger leading man part of my career. And this is one of those roles. If you can play Scrooge well, you've got an entire universe of new characters available to you that you can play for the rest of your life," he said. "One of the real challenges as a young actor is making that transition when your body doesn't quite work anymore, and maybe you can't hit all those high notes you used to be able to. That's when your training and tools get you through that. This is my first shot at a gargantuan role."

Ludwig believes the Tommy Thompson version of

"He's done this show a few times," Ludwig said chuckling, "and he knows stagecraft - he knows actors. I did his first production at McCarter and I watched him build this from scratch. Nobody handed him the ideas that this community will see. He created that with Thompson, and created what we have. That is a check you can cash over and over and over again."

One of the reasons Ludwig says he has acted in so many productions of

"This show has such a strong message," he said. "And I don't know anybody who isn't affected by its message - which is, live with a certain goodness in your heart all year round."

Ludwig also started his own film company in 2003, and has produced an ongoing web series called

The 2016 NewArts production of

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