Just as the Winter One Acts wrap up at Downers Grove North High School, the winter play, A Christmas Carol: Scrooge and Marley, is set to open at Downers Grove South, the student newspapers at North and South report.
One-Acts at Downers Grove North: Interrogating Santa Claus (Ash Chavez/student newspaper)Five of the seven short plays performed Tuesday evening at North were written by students, and six were directed by students, reported Molly St Clair. She and her friends just couldn’t stop raving about two of the plays, she wrote, including Murder on 34th Street by her classmate Ash Chavez.
The monolog in which the department-store Santa who turned out to be the killer revealed his crime had her “doubled over in laughter. Oh, and he was dressed in a Santa costume, which only added to the hilarity,” she wrote.
Opening tomorrow will be the winter play a few miles south, wrote Catherine Hewawissa at Downers Grove South. The play by Israel Horovitz is based on Charles Dickens’s famous A Christmas Carol and was commissioned by Center Stage in Baltimore several years ago.
The play tells the story from Jacob Marley’s point of view. While that perspective enlivens the 19th-century novel, the original flavor that made the story great remains completely intact.
Horovitz also adds another touch for modern audiences: carolers during some scenes and transitions. This “enhances the Christmas spirit and engagement of the show,” the article quoted director Nathaniel Haywood as saying about the carolers.
Opening night theatergoers Thursday will be treated to hot cocoa, cookies, and holiday music, while closing night, Sunday, December 4, will feature audience members joining in on the caroling.
