ORLANDO, Fla. — Like a ghost of Christmas past, Greg Wood is back in Central Florida and working with Orlando Shakes. The stage and screen actor, who recently performed in Broadway’s star-driven “Othello” with Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal, is back in town after 30 years to take on an iconic role.

Wood, who lives in Philadelphia, will be Ebenezer “Bah, humbug!” Scrooge in this year’s Orlando Shakes production of “A Christmas Carol.”

In his last local appearance — the 1994-95 theater season — Wood played Iago in “Othello” and Tranio in “The Taming of the Shrew,” when Orlando Shakes was the more formal Orlando Shakespeare Festival but performances were more informal: outdoors in the amphitheater at Lake Eola Park.

“Every time I drive by, I say, ‘Oh, I remember that,'” says Wood, who is here rehearsing for the show, which runs at the Lowndes Shakespeare Center in Loch Haven Park from Nov. 26 to Dec. 24 — just in time for Wood to get home to his family on Christmas morning. .

It’s really not such a stretch, going from Shakespeare to Scrooge.

“Any of Shakespeare’s plays he could have stepped out of,” says Wood of the cantankerous miser who has to deal with ghostly visitors (how Shakespearean does that sound right there?).

And Wood sees similarities between Shakespeare and Dickens, two English authors with an eye for detail and a keen understanding of human behavior, separated by about 200 years.

“They both had to immerse people in their worlds only through words, which hopefully triggered the imagination,” Wood said. And both authors had a way with words.

“You will never be able to say ‘I love you’ better than Shakespeare says it. Or ‘I hate you,'” laughs Wood. “It’s the same with Dickens.”

Wood has a history with mean old Mr. Scrooge, having played the role for four years at the McCarter Theater Center in Princeton, New Jersey.

“It’s a story I have loved since I was a kid,” he says. “And more than ever, the idea of someone being redeemed by human kindness has to be heard today.”

Wood has been acting in productions about human connection lately. He was in the recent “Our Town” Broadway revivial with Jim Parsons. And he spent two-and-a-half years on the road with the “To Kill a Mockingbird” national tour starring Richard Thomas. Wood played cotton farmer Link Deas, a witness at the trial of Tom Robinson, and covered the role of Atticus Finch when Thomas was unavailable.

On film, he played Kira’s dad in “The Sixth Sense” and has acted in “Signs” and “The Happening” while notching up TV guest appearances.

But his longest-running credit is spending 27 years with the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, where he played the title roles in “Hamlet,” “Richard III” and “Timon of Athens,” along with Prospero in “The Tempest,” a production directed by Orlando Shakes artistic director Jim Helsinger, who also adapted this version of “A Christmas Carol.”

“We’re thrilled to welcome back Greg Wood after 30 years,” wrote Helsinger in a statement. “His remarkable talent and extensive experience are truly impressive, and his Scrooge will remind audiences why this story endures — it’s a celebration of redemption, compassion and joy.”

Wood returns the compliments.

“Jim is really good in finding the humor in tragedy, and the drama in humor,” he says — making him a good choice to adapt “A Christmas Carol.” “I knew coming into this I could explore as much as possible with Scrooge.”

Helsinger’s adaptation relies heavily on Dickens’ text and also mixes in music.

“The singing is just amazing,” Wood says. “I just love those old Christmas carols, I can’t help it.”

In fact, he says, “Christmas is my favorite holiday. Always has been, the whole thing.”

Before he left Philadelphia, he put up the tree and strung the lights so his family can place the ornaments while he’s away. They have traditions — favorite movies to watch, eggnog to drink — but Wood is most looking forward to just being with his wife, daughters and grandchildren.

Because if there’s one thing “A Christmas Carol” tells us, Wood says, it’s that people are what makes life worth living — a message that perhaps needs to be repeated more loudly in this era a screens and automation.

“The isolation of most people is more extreme now,” he says. “I think people in general are feeling closed off or not knowing how to be social anymore.”

But after a viewing of “A Christmas Carol”?

“You can’t help but see that people matter in your life, have mattered in your life, do matter in your life,” Wood says. “Without people around you, you don’t have a life.”

———

‘A CHRISTMAS CAROL’

Where: Lowndes Shakespeare Center, 812 E. Rollins St. in Orlando

When: Nov. 26-Dec. 24

Cost: $38 and up

Info: orlandoshakes.org

———

©2025 Orlando Sentinel. Visit orlandosentinel.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.