Suzanne Stewart
Staff Writer
What if Dr. Seuss – the creator of fantastical creatures, worlds and words – wrote A Christmas Carol – the tale of a miserly curmudgeon who is visited by three ghosts on Christmas Eve?
The students in the Pocahontas County High School Theater Club will answer that question with their performance of “A Seussified Christmas Carol.”
Led by sponsor Charlie Hughes, the students have been spending their after school hours and weekends creating a set and learning their lines in order to bring to life a comical take on the classic Christmas tale.
“We still have three ghosts; we still have a very grumpy Scrooge, but it’s as if Seuss got ahold of it,” Hughes explained. “Not every line rhymes, but the whole show is in rhyme.”
The theater club will travel to the four elementary and middle schools next week to perform for the younger students and will return to PCHS for a show for their peers, as well. The play will also be open to the public with two performances on Saturday, December 16, at 2 p.m. and 6 p.m.
Along with designing the backdrop, students have worked hard to make special accents for their costumes, some of which they were able to purchase with grant funding.
“These guys have been doing fundraising,” Hughes said. “Last year, they cleaned ten miles of road for the CVB and we do refreshments at the Opera House. Then we also got a grant from Dramas, Fairs and Festivals. That’s why we can afford fancy costumes.”
It’s been years since there has been a drama class at the high school and, thanks to Hughes, the theater club has gained a good crew of students who are interested in breathing new life into the program.
They plan to continue fundraising in order to make upgrades in the school’s auditorium.
“This is only the second year we’ve had drama back at the high school,” Hughes said. “It was gone a long time. In addition to doing the show, they are working on raising funds in the club to take better care of the auditorium. We’re trying to get approval to paint the floor and fix some of the seats.”
In the meantime, the students are rehearsing and perfecting their Seussified Christmas play, chock full with made up words, vibrant costumes and silly antics.
“We’ve performed A Christmas Carol before,” Hughes said. “We wanted to do something funny this year.”
