Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
CLOVIS — The Christmas spirit is getting a funny twist this week.
“Mrs. Bob Cratchit’s Wild Christmas Binge,” a satire of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” written by Christopher Durang, is premiering at Clovis Community College.
The play premieres at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the CCC Town Hall and runs through Saturday.
The premise, according to the CCC Cultural Arts Series website, is “what if (Charles) Dickens’ Mrs. Cratchit wasn’t so goody-goody, but instead was an angry, stressed-out modern-day American woman who wanted out of this harsh London 1840s life?”
The play will be performed by the CCC Company Class, headed by theater and film instructor Christy Mendoza.
“In the past two years, we’ve done the traditional Christmas Carol, so we thought we would do something crazier,” said Mendoza. “Chris Durang is just a lot of fun to do. He spoofs a lot of modern-day traditions.
“It actually starts off with the ghost visiting Scrooge,” Mendoza said, “It just kind of goes awry from there. It’s about the ghosts trying to save Mr. Scrooge but also ends up saving Mrs. Cratchit. She wants out of her life. She’s just tired of everyone.”
Sandy Lyons portrays one character who is introduced as the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future.
“This is a little different take. You have three different ghost personalities,” said Lyons. “The character I play is comedic, and I think she’s a little scatterbrained.”
The role of Scrooge is played by seasoned CCC Company Class member Chris Cummins. He said he is no stranger to the role, performing him in the class’ last two performances of “A Christmas Carol.”
“I’ve got to lighten up a little more this year. I keep thinking, ‘Scrooge isn’t a light-up kind of guy,’” said Cummins. “I hope the people that have seen it for the past two years have got the story in their head. I hope they can connect that with this.”
Mark Schmidt described his role of Mr. Cratchit as a family man dedicated to his 20 children and wife.
“He’s really fun. He thinks everything’s lighthearted, takes everything with a grain of salt and looks on the bright side of everything,” said Schmidt.
Lyons said the message of “A Christmas Carol” — appreciating the spirit of Christmas — is still in the parody but in a different context.
“The characters are neat and don’t conform to traditional ideas and expectations like how we’re to behave in Christmas,” said Lyons. “My take is we all have different experiences and personalities. Getting people to conform is not always possible. The end result is not what we envisioned but we can still come to that point.”
“You still have the ‘Christmas Carol’ thought process and the metaphor that comes with that,” said Schmidt, “the great things that come about by having people you love.”
