On Monday, December 11, including the following Thursday and Friday evenings, Valley High School successfully brought forth their production of the Charles Dickens much-loved classic story of “A Christmas Carol” through many birth pangs. Assistant Director Becca Osterhout notes, “I’m really pleased. We had a rough start. We were gonna’ do a different play: ‘Beauty and the Beast.’ But we were unable to get the scripts. And we wanted to do a fun Christmas play. So, we got the kids together; and they worked hard. We had sickness, and we had some trials that enabled this to come. And I’m really pleased at how it got pulled-off, and proud of the kids and the energy that they brought.”
Left to right, photos by Jerry Melrose:
In the midst of a nightmarish dream the bondage of encumbering spiritual chains are broken over Ebenezer Scrooge (Joshua Larmore) at long last. Sammi Osterhout (left), Evelyn Staples, Dakota Cracraft and Elleyna Nelson carry them away.
The cast of Valley High School’s play production based on the 1849 novel of “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens. This adaptation of the perennial classic tale is by Craig Sodaro. These talented performers (left-to-right) are: Back row: Addie Staples, Evelyn Staples, Aloha Lunceford, Kopelan Lamb, Chevelle Crawshaw, Colt Reeve, Joshua Larmore, Becca Lee, Naomi Robinson, Raylie Brinkerhoff, Payten Strong, Ally Osterhout and Rossi Reeve. Front row: Sammi Osterhout, Elleyna Nelson, Sethan Soderquist, Tristan Ingram, Sadie Bauer, Dakota Cracraft, Madalyn Tait, Emily Tait and Hazen Harris.
Long-deceased former business-partner Jacob Marley (Colt Reeve) in chains confronts Ebenezer Scrooge (Joshua Larmore) with a grave warning of what may await him beyond this life.
As Ebenezer Scrooge, senior veteran Josh Larmore, most memorably for his star making role as the Cowardly Lion in last year’s “The Wizard of Oz,” agreed. “It was fun. I actually had a good time in this one! start; like, it really was a struggle. Because we didn’t have a Kelly (Director Lamb, having been away for family business). We didn’t have, like, proper coaching for much of the show. But then ... because I was doing it,” he breaks up with a brief self-effacing laugh, likely having relied upon his semi-qualifying ‘show must- go-on’ confidence earned during a youth development internship in last summer’s Utah Shakespeare Festival.
“I was doing most of the coaching from the start,” he continued. “And then, Kelly showed up finally, and he’s like, ‘This is great, but,” he giggles, “there’s little things we need to change here and there.’ And we’re like: ‘Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you so much, Kelly!’ It’s turned-out surprisingly well: amazing to what it was a while ago.”
“Well, I think we did really good,” added junior Colt Reeve accordingly. “I really like how we just came together. A week ago, we kind of fell apart; but, I just think we did pretty kind of good in pulling it together.” And of the various characters he embodied, from Jacob Marley and other powerful Spirits, he acknowledged, “It was really fun to play that many parts. I was kind of challenging [myself] to do that many costume changes, because I’d never done it before; but I really liked it. It was really fun to be able to switch characters like that and to just be a part of the play in such a deep experience.” And from the audience responses, they enjoyed them, too.
