Just in time for the holiday season, the Central Bucks High School West Harlequin Club presents Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” Dec. 15-17.
This new play adaptation by Claudine Quigley-Piechotta reimagines the traditional tale for contemporary times with a focus on redemption, love, renewal and second chances. The show includes music and dance and truly is a celebration of the season to be enjoyed by guests of all ages.
“A Christmas Carol” is the first play to be presented under the club’s new director, Claudine Quigley-Piechotta. Piechotta was hired in October, long after rehearsals would have been underway for a fall show.
The club members had resigned themselves to the reality of a fall without a show. But Piechotta came in highly motivated and unwilling to accept a drama club without a dramatic production for its fall season.
She presented her innovative concept for a play adaptation (that she wrote herself) with music and dancing. The creative team decided it could be done and they got to work. The show dates were pushed back by a month, which gave the club time to prepare for the show, but it also placed the show on the perfect weekend for a holiday production.
Piechotta recognized the difficulty for students to start working under a new director and noted that, “’A Christmas Carol’ with its themes about second chances and renewal really is the perfect production to help students reflect and process new beginnings.”
Given the theme of charity in “A Christmas Carol,” the club will be supporting three local charities through its production: Tabor Children’s Home (devoted to ensuring the mental, physical, and emotional needs are appropriately addressed with youth and families), Code Blue (works in the community to provide a warm meal and place to sleep for the homeless during the coldest evenings in winter) and Ann Silverman Community Health Clinic (provides free medical and dental care, behavioral health and social services to low-income, uninsured residents of Bucks County). There will be specific items for sale and collection buckets at each show with all those proceeds to be donated to the three charities.
A Christmas Carol is playing at Central Bucks High School West, 375 W. Court St., Doylestown, at 7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 15; at 2 and 7 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 16; and at 4 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 17. The ticket link can be found at www.cbsd.org/harlequinclub. Adults pay $15, children/seniors are $10. Cash or check only at the door.
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