Penn Middle Drama Club preps for 1st audience-attended show in 2 years, ‘A Christmas Carol’

Patrick Varine | Sunday, December 12, 2021 5:05 p.m.

Courtesy of Sharon Wiant

Penn Middle School students, from left, Anthony Stagno, Lyla Gross, Lucas Bramson, Leah Vislosky and Gabe Barreuther pose for a photo during a rehearsal for “A Christmas Carol.”

Penn Middle Drama Club students are preparing to welcome a live audience for the first time in two years, staging the Charles Dickens classic “A Christmas Carol” on Dec. 17-18.

“We’re super excited about it,” said drama club sponsor and technical director Sharon Wiant. “All of the schools in the district have gone back to live chorus and band concerts. The high school did a play with an audience.”

Last spring, the drama club put on a livestreamed production of “Annie Jr.” Rehearsals for the full production of “A Christmas Carol” began in September.

“I gave them a pretty short deadline to get their lines memorized, and every time they come back, their scenes are better than the last rehearsal,” said director Maddie Nick, a Penn-Trafford graduate and co-founder of local theater school 20/20 Performing Arts. “I love seeing them improve with every rehearsal.”

Nick said it can be challenging working with younger actors, particularly when they are portraying a much older adult character.

“It’s a challenge to get them out of the middle-schooler mindset and thinking about playing an older adult,” Nick said. “In some of the scenes, they’re talking about things they haven’t gone through, like a breakup or a death.”

While the production hews very close to the classic Dickens tale, Nick said she has added small flourishes here and there.

“We work with a great choreographer, Laura Wurzell, so we added a dance in the Fezziwig Christmas party scene, but it’s very close to the Dickens version,” Nick said.

Wiant said it remains to be seen whether student actors will use face shields during the production, similar to those used during last year’s staging of “Annie Jr.”

“We’re rehearsing with masks right now,” Wiant said. “But the high school performance took place without masks, so we’re just kind of keeping an eye on things and seeing how best to do it.”

“A Christmas Carol” will take place at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 17-18 in the Penn Middle School Auditorium, 1007 Penn Middle Way in Penn Township.

Tickets are $5 at the door and also will be available in advance from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Dec. 11 in the auditorium. For details, including additional advance ticket sale dates, visit PennMiddleDrama.com.