The Battle Ground High School Drama Club is ready to reignite the Christmas spirit with it’s rendition of “A Christmas Carol.”
The play, which was first performed at the school in 2015, is spearheaded by drama teacher Stephan “Cash” Henry.
Henry said most of the set is up and most of the costumes have been fitted. The club is counting down the days until they can hit the stage, with their first performance scheduled for Nov. 10.
“It’s going well,” Henry said. “We did a show last spring that we still had to deal with masks for a little while and it had to be postponed for three months because of the omicron (variant) in January.”
Henry made some adjustments to the play, which he hopes will add to the story’s quality and resonate with the audience.
“When I originally wrote the adaptation in 2015, there were parts of it that once the production was done, I was pleased with, but I’m like ‘there are things that I could probably switch or do new things with,’” he said. “Over the summer, when we decided that we were going to do this show again, I went in and rewrote some of the scenes to create a little more tension and a little more dramatic foreshadowing.”
In one scene with the character Ebenezer Scrooge and his father, Henry “intensified” the dialogue to make it more powerful. He also changed the storyline in various places to give the audience a surprise.
“It’s not so much rewriting as redirecting some of the emotional levels of the scene with young Ebenezer and Belle, his fiancé, that I think have really brought a lot more power to that scene, and I think it’ll be one of those scenes where the audience is left a little breathless at the end,” Henry said.
He hopes those who come watch the show will leave with an understanding of the importance of love and the Christmas spirit, “or the idea of the Christmas spirit at all times, not just around the holidays, but really looking out for each other and our fellow travelers along this human plane that we all need to be kind to each other,” he said.
At the play, the club will collect donations as they raise funds for a trip to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland next summer. The club is currently about $30,000 short of its $105,000 goal, Henry said.
He said the club was supposed to make their second trip over there in 2020, but they weren’t able to because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Besides donations collected at the play, Henry is also trying to raise funds through Facebook, grants and sponsorship letters.
“We’re asking for community help, we’re asking for businesses to run advertisements in our programs (and) to pay for advertisements in the programs, which have helped toward the fundraising,” he said.
Henry said not everyone has expendable income to donate and noted times are tough for some people, but said, “I also know through my own experience of giving and donating and through research that I’ve done that people find more happiness in giving to others than they do oftentimes spending that money on themselves.”
Doors will open for the play at 6:30 p.m. and the performance will start at 7 p.m. on Nov. 10 through Nov. 12, and from Nov. 17 through Nov. 19. It will take place at Battle Ground High School at 300 W. Main St.
Tickets cost $7 and only cash is accepted at the door. They can also be purchased online at wa-battle ground.intouchreceipting.com.
For more information, contact Henry at henry.stephan@battle groundps.org.
