Tiny Tim is a girl

Young Chang

Camille Kazempoor has literally hung up her dancing shoes. In her

bedroom, where she sleeps beneath a lavender home-made canopy among

stuffed animals and the light of a star-studded lamp, her worn ballet

shoes line the rim of a framed painting.

The 9-year-old’s personal style is as feminine as her room. She wears

a glittered navy blue headband, a 1970s-style white top with pink

embroidering and flared cargo jeans. She has a small gold hoop in each

ear. Her hair is straight and falls to her shoulders neatly combed.

She is pretty and petite. A girlie girl. Except onstage. There, she is

a boy.

Camille alternates the role of Tiny Tim with Gregory Swanson, 8, in

this year’s production of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” at South

Coast Repertory.

The Newport Coast resident said she didn’t think twice about

auditioning for the role of a boy. The setting of the play -- mid-1800s

England -- was so foreign to begin with, Camille said she didn’t think a

gender-change was anything to consider.

“I just enjoy acting,” she said.

For Camille, who wears boy’s clothes complete with a bow-tie and gauge

wrap around the leg to look like Tiny Tim, the performance is never

anything to get nervous about.

“I’m getting better and better,” Camille said, “The more I do it, I

remember more and I get more comfortable.”

Director John-David Keller, returning to the show for his 21st year,

said the actress is a “terrific Tiny Tim” who disproves the notion that

young children have identity problems playing the opposite sex.

“A Christmas Carol,” which has played every year since 1980 at SCR,

opened this week and will continue through Dec. 24 on the mainstage. Hal

London returns this year as Ebenezer Scrooge, a role he has played at SCR

since the beginning.

London said the “repugnant, reprehensible miser” Scrooge, who is

visited by three spirits and shown his past, present and possible future,

is a role that continues to fascinate him.

“It is a little bit different each year,” he said. “I think I bring,

to some degree, my own experiences that change the way I see the

character . . . And sometimes I see him differently each night.”

Eight local students from SCR’s Young Conservatory, including Camille,

are part of the cast: Alexander Scholnick of Corona del Mar, Carlos

Ibarra and Amy Barklow of Costa Mesa, Sydney Nikols of Newport Beach and

siblings Alexander, Gregory and Natasha Swanson of Newport Beach.

The Swansons are in two different casts for the show, said Kathy

Swanson, the trio’s mother.

“I can say my biggest fear,” she said, laughing, “is I get the wrong

child to the wrong program.”

Alexander, 10, plays the young Scrooge. Gregory, 8, alternates with

Camille playing Tiny Tim. Natasha, 11, plays one of the his siblings.

“It’s easier to play [Tiny Tim] when my real sister is my sister in

the play,” Gregory said.

Camille’s mother, Debbie Kazempoor, said she was impressed by how

professional the cast is.

“And they bring it out in the kids to be true professionals,” she

said. “Someday they will realize just how much they’re learning.”

Keller said there is a tradition to the show.

“There’s enough that’s old, there’s enough that’s new, there’s enough

that’s borrowed, there’s enough that’s blue,” he said. “It’s like a big

wedding.”

The director wants both his cast and audience to respond to the show

as Camille has -- with comfort, enjoyment and reflection.

“Christmas is always a time for reflection, for a re-awakening of the

spirit,” he said. “It’s a time to think about people you’ve lost in the

year, people who are close to you, people close to you you don’t see --

it’s everything Christmas is about. That’s how I want people to respond.”

FYI

WHAT: “A Christmas Carol”

WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. Saturdays

and noon and 4 p.m. Sundays through Dec. 24. A student matinee will be

offered at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday.

WHERE: South Coast Repertory’s Mainstage, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa

Mesa

COST: $17-$41

CALL: (714) 708-5569