Carol Youmans’ love for the arts — and for the people at Colonial Players with whom she created, experienced and spread art — was exponential. When she died unexpectedly on March 27, the common theme of the responses among those whom she had touched was Carol was my … — you name it: mentor, designer, director, friend, all of those rolled into one. Because once you worked with Carol, she was your friend.
Over the decades of her involvement at the all-volunteer Colonial Players, she was a president, a director, a set designer, an artist. If you are among the thousands of Annapolitans who have enjoyed the Annapolis tradition that is Colonial Players’ A Christmas Carol, you’ve seen her artwork adorning the walls, for her hands created the London skyline of 1843 that has stood tall in almost all of those productions since the early 1980s.
Rick Wade, who wrote that musical version of A Christmas Carol, was the first to get Carol involved at Colonial. In 1979, he says, she was managing a frame shop on Main Street, and his work with the theater meant having a lot of show posters framed.