‘A Christmas Carol’ to be presented Dec. 17 and 18.
By: Emily Craighead
As the holidays approach, Alexander Batcho Intermediate School students are staging a Christmas classic for family, friends and neighbors.
Dec. 17 and 18, they will present a musical adaptation of Charles Dickens’ "A Christmas Carol" at ABIS.
"It gets you in the Christmas-y spirit," said sixth-grader Jessica Lubas during rehearsal Monday. Jessica plays a girl collecting alms for the poor in one scene, and Scrooge’s nephew Fred’s daughter in another.
"It gives people more time to think about what they really think about on Christmas," added seventh-grader Ashley Ferentchak, who also plays a girl collecting alms.
The play also gives dramatics coach Margaret Mutchler the chance to develop her young thespians’ acting skills.
"I try to make it fun, but I want to try to show them they have to try to start to become in character," Ms. Mutchler said.
Stepping onto the stage Monday afternoon with Chris Jenner, the seventh-grade student who plays Scrooge, she modeled how to engage the audience by turning toward them and projecting his emotions through his voice and body language.
"If you get the audience involved in what you’re doing … that’s it, you’ve got them," she said.
The 40 students, including cast and crew, have surprised Ms. Mutchler with their creative ideas.
"We had some dancers who didn’t want to do a lot of acting, so they basically choreographed their own act," with just a few suggestions, she said.
The cast has even acquired English accents. Ms. Mutchler, who is completing a degree in music education, said she wasn’t sure the students would be able to imitate an English accent, but after one student put on the accent as a joke, everyone else picked it up.
"It was uncanny that they all just started speaking with the accent," she said.
Some days, practices are tedious for the middle school students, especially when they are waiting to rehearse their scene. Students use down-time during rehearsals to work on their homework, but often when they aren’t on stage, Ms. Mutchler keeps them busy with other parts of the production.
With some help from parent volunteers, the students have painted scenery, strung popcorn for the Christmas tree on stage, and created posters advertising the play.
"We’ve had a lot of great parent support," said Leslie Strauss, an English teacher at the high school who is co-producing the play with Ms. Mutchler.
As the performance date approaches, excitement among the cast and crew is rising.
Last week, Ms. Mutchler said the actors had their first costume fitting.
"They’re excited because the costumes are very authentic," Ms. Mutchler said. Scrooge will wear a top hat and the girls will swoosh across stage in hoop skirts.
"I keep trying to add different things to spark their interest and show them there is an end in sight," Ms. Mutchler said.
Tickets for the 7 p.m. performances Dec. 17 and 18 cost $3 for adults and $1 for children and senior citizens. Tickets will be sold at the door.

