Budding Marietta actor to play Ralphie in 'A Christmas Story'

Ten young actors survived preliminary auditions to make it to this semifinal round, held in early October on Mercer University’s Atlanta campus. Just before Cooper, 13, had his turn with the judges, a noisy ruckus broke out nearby.

Some children attending a fall festival had come across bubble wrap and were stomping on it with all their might.

Cooper didn’t flinch. Instead, he summoned his best Ralphie Parker-style powers of imagination.

“It was the scene where Ralphie fights Black Bart and his band of bad guys,” the slyly funny Marietta seventh-grader recalled several weeks later, after the role was officially his. “I just pictured a lot of gunshots going off in the distance.”

That knack for spinning obstacles into comedy gold will come in handy over the next month as the budding actor becomes Ralphie — the central role in a beloved holiday tale whose familiarity makes it both a blessing and, potentially, a burden to perform.

A major award

For his first-ever stage appearance, Cooper will have to lighten his hair, and possibly swap out his own hipster-ish square spectacles for the cereal bowl-sized round type actor Peter Billingsley sported in the movie.

Ralphie’s signature line — “I want an official Red Ryder, carbine action, two-hundred shot range model air rifle!” — will have to drop from his lips with the rapid-fire swagger of a rap star. He’ll need to hold his own onstage for 22 shows with adults who have played weighty parts from Macbeth to Eleanor of Aquitaine.

None of their parents, it’s safe to assume, had to meet with the principal of Dickerson Middle School to ensure they could make it to rehearsals, as Tony and Ellen Driskell did recently.

Best (or worst?) of all, there’s this: Nearly everyone’s seen the movie version of “A Christmas Story” at least once. Many have seen it dozens of times, and aren’t afraid to wear their hearts on their reindeer-sweatered sleeves when it comes to repeating favorite lines or scenes verbatim.

So is he nervous? Scared? Not Cooper, who regards playing the part much like Ralphie’s dad does winning the leg lamp: It’s a major award.

“I’m really excited. I didn’t realize ’til after I got cast that ‘A Christmas Story’ was such a huge deal to so many people,” said Cooper.

He got his first taste of what was to come at an impromptu fondue fest with his brother Griffin, 17, and their parents at the Melting Pot restaurant in Kennesaw. “We went to celebrate me getting the part and the waiter was like, ‘Did you really? That’s such an honor!’ ”

A major effort

It’s also something of a gamble all around. The first and last time Georgia Shakespeare mounted a holiday show was back in 1999. And that one — a seasonal version of its popular “Taming of the Shrew” musical — was squarely in the Bard’s ballpark.

Not only does “A Christmas Story” establish the 25-year-old company as a serious player during this potentially lucrative time of year, hopes are high that it will draw in new audiences that might normally shy away from anything with “Shakespeare” on the ticket.

From its home at the Conant Performing Center at Oglethorpe University, Georgia Shakespeare has pulled out all the stops to make that happen.

From Duluth to Decatur, the opening rounds of the “Search for Ralphie” (and six other kids’ parts) took place over four Saturdays in September. For the adult roles, experienced professional hands like Mark Kincaid (Ralphie’s blustering, sputtering father) and LaLa Cochran (the hilariously swoony teacher) were cast. Allan Edwards will play the crucially important narrator (aka grown-up Ralphie), who’s never actually seen in the movie but will move all around the stage in this production.

Over in the wardrobe department, authentic period winter scarves and hats have been tracked down. And director Drew Fracher has thought long and hard about where to draw the line between being respectful to the expectations of the movie’s fans and disrespecting them by merely re-enacting it onstage.

“People are going to come see the play because they know the movie for the most part,” said Fracher. “I’m not going to turn out an exact duplicate or cast someone just because they look like the original actor. But I do want it to be an homage to what I think is a wonderful little film.”

A major presence

Little? Uh-uh.

With its deceptively sweet storyline about 9-year-old Ralphie’s nonstop scheming in late 1940s Indiana to land the ultimate Christmas present — the aforementioned Red Ryder air rifle — “A Christmas Story” is the pop culture equivalent of that quirky green bean casserole that stubbornly reappears each year at holiday dinners everywhere.

On its own, each ingredient is fine (think of “the Old Man,” Ralphie’s maestro-of-the-muttered-expletive father, as the crusty onion ring topping). It’s only when they’re all mixed together that something unexpectedly wonderful emerges.

“We all have a Red Ryder in life. That’s the best way I know how to describe it,” said Ian Petrella, 35, who played Randy, the little brother who got trapped in his own snowsuit in the movie. “That’s what it captured so well, that need that everyone in life wants something.”

Even people who loathe the dish admit it wouldn’t quite feel like the holidays were it not around.

That “A Christmas Story” is almost inescapably around is due largely to Atlanta-based Turner Broadcasting. Its annual “24 Hours of ‘A Christmas Story’ ” marathon began airing on TNT in 1997, then moved over to TBS in 2004.

Several generations have come of age watching and re-watching Ralphie pummel the schoolyard bully Scut Farkus, and Schwartz “triple dog dare” Flick to stick his tongue on a frozen flagpole. A thriving industry has built up around movie collectibles (the bunny suit, the leg lamp) and tourism (a museum and the house where filming took place both are in Cleveland). There’s even a “Christmas Story” convention in Ohio over the weekend.

‘He is Ralphie’

Now, into this miasma of high stakes and heady anticipation steps Cooper Driskell, whose cherubic cheeks don’t quite distract from the frequent mischievous gleam in his eyes.

Family tradition handed him a BB gun at age 10, but he’s only watched “A Christmas Story” twice. (“Elf,” starring one his acting heroes, Will Ferrell, is his fave holiday flick, and he dreams of being on “Saturday Night Live.”) And he just started taking acting lessons a few months ago. His signature stage moment to date came when he fell off of one while playing the tuba at school and broke his arm.

“I was playing my B-flat and then I be flat,” quipped Cooper.

Quick-witted stuff like that recently led his parents to explore acting as a possible outlet for their younger child.

“Cooper is ‘on’ as soon as he gets up, and he shifts characters all day,” said Ellen Driskell, a kindergarten teacher’s aide at Sope Creek Elementary in Marietta. “It’s fun, but we sometimes say, ‘This is what it must have been like to be Robin Williams’ parents.’ ”

Added Tony, who owns Nature’s Way Plants Inc. and a luxury travel company: “We were like, ‘Kid, if we have to live with this, then everyone else will have to, too.’ ”

Ralphie is the first role he ever auditioned for. But his inexperience didn’t bother Fracher, who compares it favorably to working with some pint-sized pro who might “come in thinking he already had it all figured out.” During a long weekend of final auditions at Oglethorpe, director Fracher and Georgia Shakespeare artistic director Richard Garner saw 30 youngsters vying for various roles, including six potential Ralphies.

Wearing cargo shorts and black sneakers, Cooper ambled in and charmed the duo with his ability to take impromptu direction and to banter easily. (“All anyone asked me was, ‘How is the tuba?’” he said when Fracher inquired about that sudden end to his musical career.) When he ambled back out again some 15 minutes later, Fracher and Garner exchanged wide grins.

“He is Ralphie,” Fracher chuckled after casting had been completed. “The Ralphie character is not devious, but he’s a little bit of an operator trying to scheme his way to getting what he wants. I was looking for someone who was a little silly, but could also talk a bit of a line and get away with it in a way that’s irresistible. Cooper’s a natural. It’s like he’s not even acting.”

It’s a major award all around.