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Holiday classic presented by Millennium Charter Academy

Millennium Charter Academy in Mount Airy is inviting the public to a freshened version of the holiday classic “A Christmas Carol.”

Reimagined by MCA teacher Eric Cook, the resetting of a classic tale from Victorian London to depression era North Carolina will give the production an opportunity to present the well-known tale in a unique way.

“This show will help launch the holiday season as its being done right after Thanksgiving and it helps us remember the reason for the holiday. It isn’t all about stuff, rather it is about community, being together, and helping our fellow human,” director Brandon Rouse said.

Cook explained, “A Christmas Carol is such a well-known and well-worn tale that it is always helpful to give it a fresh face-lift, a little fresh perspective to make it new again. So, we thought combining a classic tale with local culture was a great way to give it some new life and some additional relevance.”

“If you want people to understand the story and you want them to have the sort of emotional and aesthetic reaction to it Dickens intended, you need to make it fresh for their eyes and ears,” he said.

“When we discussed the production, we decided that moving it to a small town in North Carolina and setting it in a time which everyone understands as a period of economic suffering and struggle, the Great Depression, would help. It just made so much sense because it would be both familiar but new,” Cook explained.

“Yes, Scrooge still has to say, ‘Bah Humbug’,” Rouse clarified, “But it does allow us to do things with staging and dialogue.”

It is a tale that is beloved by many and Cook is no exception, “It is a very important work for me personally because it crosses a lot of favorite bridges – it is a family melodrama, it is a ghost story, it is a story of social reform, it is a Victorian tale, and most importantly it is a story of redemption, forgiveness, charity and love.”

After having released two flops, Dickens was feeling the pressure to churn out something that would sell, Cook explained “he, in the fever of a few weeks, created a miniature masterpiece” in the tale still being told today of Scrooge, ghostly visages, other worldly visions. Adding in those supernatural elements into a story about the holidays and redemption seems to have been a winning formula for Dickens as readers still flock to the tale.

Cook said, “Most people today know it from a film adaptation or perhaps from reading it in middle or high school… but unless you read it frequently or very closely it is easy to miss a lot of intriguing details in the story.

“One thing I tried to do when adapting the play was look for those over-looked clues in the story and flesh them out with my own imagination, because Dickens often implies things or hints at things, but doesn’t develop them.”

Moving the story in location and time will not affect the message of the story known so well. Rouse said that some of the themes are universal and work whether the play was still set in London. “Times were rough then, especially for families. Like a lot of families today, it was hard to make ends meet. Those feelings and emotions translate.”

Cook said he drew from history and the experiences of locals of that time for his adaptation. “I combined information from local Mount Airy stories, regional history and old newspapers, and the stories and experiences of my own family members living in another part of the Appalachian Mountains.

“The South has such a rich local culture and the Great Depression in many ways seemed a perfect fit because it was a time when so many people were suffering but the people who came through that time also saw it as a time of growth and testing and often spoke fondly of making the best of those times.”

What is considered one of the great stories of the holidays was not generously received by Samuel Clemens, who said, “There is no heart. No feeling—it is nothing but glittering frostwork.” It would seem Mark Twain’s opinion did not align with the overall reception to the tale of Scrooge’s rough night.

Millennium Charter Academy is offering another novel way to enjoy the show when they will present the show in a dinner theater performance Saturday. There will still be general admission seats available for that show, but half the audience he said would be seated for the dinner. “As humans our senses are engaged in so many ways. With dinner theater we can engage the sense of taste and smell as well,” Rouse said.

“Dinner theater is a great way to connect with the community and engage with the audience. With the unique setting of the play and in a context our audience will find familiar…it’s an innovative adaptation that people here have never seen before,” he said.

Cook offered that, “Dickens’ message of forgiveness, love, and charity is a message we all need to hear, over and over again, in as many different ways as possible. His message, for me, isn’t quite the true or fullest meaning of Christmas, but he gets pretty close, and it is a rip-snort of a great story.”

“Attending the show is a way of helping your fellow human,” Rouse said. “Going to the show prevents you from being a Scrooge yourself.”

Showtimes are Thursday and Friday, Dec 1-2, at 6:30 p.m. and Saturday, Dec. 3, at 6 p.m. in the Upper School Gym at Millennium Charter Academy, 500 Old Springs Rd., Mount Airy.

General Admission tickets for the show are $7, $5 for students. Tickets for the dinner theater meal and performance are $20 with proceeds from the show will help future productions.

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Source: https://www.mtairynews.com

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