'Carol' adapted for young cast

The beginning drama students in Keith Buck's classes at Marysville Charter Academy for the Arts will present "A Christmas Carol" at the Marysville Community Auditorium.

Co-directed by Wendie Marks and Rebecca Browning, two casts will present the show Thursday through Sunday.

Unlike a typical performance at the auditorium, this production is presented with seating limited to 81, Marks said. "So call the school or come by the office ahead of time to buy your tickets early," she urged. "You can get tickets at the door, but you take the chance of the show being sold out if you do. So come early if you want to get a seat.

"There are only four performances, so they will be gone in a flash," she added.

Marks said the young drama students, comprised mostly of seventh- and eighth-graders, have had to make a big adjustment to perform in the more intimate setting. "They have had to learn how to address all three sections of the audience and move in a different way. It will be different for the kids feeling the audience so close."

Marks said that Buck adapted and modernized the script somewhat to suit the actors in his class.

"He has four narrators who are telling the story — and Scrooge (Rae Diamond and Sara Powell) is a woman and Marley (Gabrielle Matthews and Schelby Madison) is a woman. Because he has so many girls in his class, he reversed the gender to give them a chance to play the roles," Marks said.

"Instead of Tiny Tim, it's Tiny Tina (Feliciana Barkley-Brinson and Christine Kukulka). But the story is basically intact. There is some Dickensian language, and the usual Dickens characters are in there," she said.

Marks said "A Christmas Carol" "is about a woman who is totally obsessed with business and her numbers. She is visited by the ghost of her former partner who comes carrying all these chains and tells her about the burdens of the afterlife when you don't live your life well.

"The ghost says Scrooge will be visited by three other ghosts: Christmas Past (Tatjana Kelly and Faith Rodriguez), Christmas Present (Nicole Beeman and Elizabeth Sutton) and Christmas Future (Hope Rodriguez and Audrey Wilson). Each ghost has a lesson to teach Scrooge and shows her something about her life that actually causes Scrooge to undergo a transformation."

About 50 students comprise the two large casts.

By the end of the play, Scrooge drops her frugual, miserly ways and her heart opens. "So it's a very beautiful story — and I think everybody has a bit of Scrooge in them," Marks said.

"It's really a meaningful story, of course, at this time of the year. I think the audience will be genuinely charmed by the young people and the efforts that they have made. There is a little bit of singing — some Christmas carols — and Rebekah Hood's violin students will play right before each performance," Marks said.

CONTACT Susan Benitez at sbenitez@appealdemocrat.com or 749-4773. Find her on Facebook at /ADfeatures or on Twitter at @ADfeatures.