Welcome back to Dramaturgy 101! This month, we’re excited to present CSI: Christmas Scene Investigators or…who stole Santa Claus? by Pat Cook.
It’s nearly Christmas and the students of Wendell Wilke High School are preparing to perform their Christmas play. This year they’re excited to present Charles Dickens’ classic Christmas ghost story, A Christmas Carol…if they can find the school’s Santa statue, a pillar of Christmas tradition at Wendell Wilke. Without it, the show can’t go on, according to Principal Crunge. With the help of the Clue Club, the cast and crew of one Christmas mystery try to solve another and end up finding more than just a yard decoration.
So, what is it about Christmas and mysteries? Why is a time of year associated with happiness and goodwill also inexorably tied to ghost stories, intrigue, and mischief?
The tradition goes back long before Ebenezer Scrooge saw Jacob Marley in his sitting room.
Christmas takes its roots from the Pagan holiday of Yule, a celebration of rebirth held on the shortest and darkest day of the year, the winter solstice. As Pagans converted to Christianity in the middle ages, the traditions evolved to incorporate images from their new religion but not all connection was lost. Christmas was still a time for feasting and celebrating through songs and storytelling, as Yule had been, though now held for the birth of Christ.
When Charles Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol in London in 1863, he saw a tradition largely ignored in his community because of the economic pressures of the times. Most people, like Bob Cratchit’s family, struggled to get by and very few got off work for Christmas Day. In this context, Bob Cratchit’s good heart and Christmas spirit shine all the brighter against Scrooge’s “bah-humbug.” Scrooge, who has all the money he could need, still shuns connection to friends or family, believing that his wealth makes him superior to his fellow man. Dickens’ story is a warning to the wicked, but it holds hope for the future in its belief that anyone, even Ebenezer Scrooge, is capable of change.
A Christmas Carol, like many holiday traditions, has become one of the most told and re-told Christmas stories, taking on a life of its own in new adaptations every year. With each new version, new life comes back to a timeless story and rebirths it for another year. Like the Pagans, for whom Yule represented the darkest moments before the coming of the spring, celebration and tradition were a part of an ongoing cycle of life, death, and rebirth. CSI, like A Christmas Carol and many Christmas stories, focuses on the value of evolving our past traditions to reflect our present and how doing so allows those traditions to survive long into the future.
So, enjoy your traditions, old and new. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from the Encore Staff!
Tickets for the final weekend of CSI: Christmas Scene Investigators are extremely limited. Buy your tickets today to ensure that you and your family won’t miss out on this hilarious Christmas mystery.
Performance Dates and Times:
Friday, December 13, 2019 at 7:30pm
Saturday, December 14, 2019 at 11am and 3pm
Sunday, December 15, 2019 at 3pm
Photos by Cindy Kane Photography. Graphic design by Aileen Pangan Christian.
Blog contribution by 2019/2020 Production Apprentice Kyla McLaughlin. Edited by Shannon McCarthy.