For its second year in production, the Brick Monkey Theater Ensemble’s An Appalachian Christmas Carol is bigger and better.
With the success of the play’s first production last year, the theater troupe decided to double the performances, add more music and add more actors.
“We have more music … we’re able to get the musicians on stage and as an active part of the story,” said Merri Biechler, the playwright and managing director of Brick Monkey. “The script was brand new last year so we felt there were ways of telling the story in a clearer way so we added actors so the cast wasn’t doubling up as much.”
The story is based off of one many have heard before: Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol. However, the well-known story has a major twist in this version — it’s all about Athens. Ebenezer Scrooge owns the local coal mine and Fezziwig’s holiday party is set in Stuart’s Opera House.
Biechler said she and the members of Brick Monkey, who mostly live in or around Athens, wanted to highlight the community while also exemplifying the troupe’s emphasis on new plays.
“We wanted to create a signature piece for ourselves that reached out to the community and establish that we do new plays,” she said. “It felt like a really good fit to look at A Christmas Carol. The issues Dickens was dealing with back in London in the middle of the 1800s were not that different from the ones the coal mining industry faced here: workers’ rights, safety, clean water.”
Biechler said the doubling of the performances came from audience demand. She said she remembered hearing all throughout the year how people said they were sad they had missed the show. She added the fact that it is about the Athens area is a major draw for the community.
“It’s fun to see the recognition in their eyes that this is their story being told,” she said.
The troupe is not only going to continue the tradition of producing the show, but Biechler said the ensemble has once again set aside exclusive performances for the school kids around the county.
“We give three special performances,” she said. “It’s part of our mission to bring theater to the next generation. … It’s why we do this.”
@buzzlightmeryl
mg986611@ohiou.edu
