Project CAROL

A VICTORIAN SCRIPT-TO-STAGE PROJECT

LITERARY & HISTORICAL ANALYSIS • SCRIPT WRITING • DESIGN PROCESS • SERVICE LEARNING
ETHICS • COLLABORATION • CRITICAL THINKING • CREATIVITY • PRESENTATION

Driving Question: How can we, as a comprehensive Victorian Age theater company, create a script-to-stage production of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol including an original adaptation, sets, props, costumes, music, posters, playbills, and acting, in order to show mastery of classic English literature, including complex themes, symbols and other literary elements? ... AND SOCIAL JUSTICE IN THE VICTORIAN ERA!

The Victorian Era has many lessons to offer. Almost everyone is familiar with the internal conflict in this story, the blackened heart of the old miser Ebenezer Scrooge. Fewer recall the external conflict, one that existed in the real world, and still exists today. The Victorian Era was a time and place of unparalleled splendor, beauty and extreme wealth. It was also a time and place of child labor, overflowing orphanages, unsafe working conditions, extreme poverty, debtors prisons and union workhouses. The moral lessons of Victorian England are still relevant and much-needed today, and masterfully presented in the many works of Charles Dickens. Students will use creativity, critical thinking, and collaboration to produce a play based on Charles Dickens' timeless classic A Christmas Carol.

How is this PBL and not just a class play? The set, props, costumes, music, posters, playbills and acting will all be performed, procured, created and managed by 7th grade students.What's more is that the foundation of this project is created by careful literary and ethical analysis. Lead roles and caroling will require after school rehearsals. Songs include Here We Come A Caroling, God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman, Carol of Bells, Jingle Bells, O Christmas Tree, Good King Wenceslas, We Wish You a Merry Christmas (note: this is not a religious play, these were the popular carols written in Victorian England). Students will also be encouraged to visit The Dickens Fair in San Francisco, and watch several versions of A Christmas Carol films and plays in advance of our showtimes. In class we will watch the animated version from 2009 and the film about Charles Dickens, The Man Who Invented Christmas. Students will have the opportunity to see A Christmas Carol at the American Conservatory Theater in SF, and attend a special gathering hosted by UC Santa Cruz professors and local actors (see photos). Duration: 6 weeks (3 weeks reading/analysis and 3 weeks script-to-stage).

Plot Diagrams

Bringing the Story to Life...

Service Learning

"Business! Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were all my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!"
-- The Ghost of Jacob Marley

A Christmas Carol is a novella by English author Charles Dickens. It was first published by Chapman & Hall on 19 December 1843. Carol tells the story of a bitter old miser named Ebenezer Scrooge and his transformation resulting from a supernatural visit by the ghost of his former business partner Jacob Marley and the Ghosts of Christmases Past, Present and Yet to Come. Most scholars agree that much of the story is based on the humiliating experiences of Dickens' childhood and his unrelenting sympathy for the poor and downtrodden. This is a story of hope, it's a story of redemption and it's a story to learn from. We will listen to an abridged audiobook, performed by Patrick Stewart.

Students will work with a partner to create a plot diagram for A Christmas Carol. Each diagram must display the following elements: characters (protagonist/antagonists), settings (when/where), theme/central message, narration type, exposition/introduction, conflict (internal and external), rising action (X4), CLIMAX, falling action (X3), resolution/denouement [French word, pronounced day-new-mon].

A Hero's Journey

Carol Art Project

Design and Construction Team

Hair and Makeup Team

Production Photos

Local Trips