SUBMITTED PHOTO/Courtesy of Reg BennettAssistant Director David Littlefield is pictured next to a poster for “A Christmas Carol” presented at Wells High School tonight and Saturday. The play, with a student cast and crew of 30, is produced by Jay Audet and directed by Andrew Lopez.

WELLS — The drama club at Wells High School will present Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” through Dec. 3. It is the first play to be presented in the school’s new performing arts center.

Performances began Nov. 30 and are being held tonight at 7 p.m. and at 1 p.m. Saturday. The cost is $5 for students and senior citizens and $8 for adults.

“A Christmas Carol” is based on the classic, haunting tale by 19th century English author Charles Dickens. It was adapted for the Wells stage by director Andrew Lopez and produced by Jay Audet.  About 30 students take part in the production.

“My adaptation of ‘A Christmas Carol’ is the original novel, adapted for the stage,” Lopez said. “Other than one scene written by myself, all dialogue is verbatim. I created a five character ‘Greek Chorus’ to deliver narration that I considered essential.  It is a dark show, full of music, dance and special effects.”

The Olenn Performing Arts Center is now capable of wonderful special effects with state of the art sound and lighting technology. The new venue includes a balcony and can seat an audience of about 440.

In addition, this play introduces David Littlefield as assistant director for this and future plays at WHS.    Littlefield is a 2010 graduate of Wells High School and a 2014 graduate of Burlington College in Vermont where he majored in video production.He is currently a substitute teacher in the Wells-Ogunquit Community School Distrcit and owner of the video production company, David Littlefield Productions. 

“It’s been really exciting for me to come back to the school and see the new stage and see that there is so much more participation in the drama department,” Littlefield said. As a student at WHS, he played a role in numerous play productions produced in the old Olenn Auditorium. “It is also great to see that arts and drama are … flourishing,” said Littlefield. “I think the new stage is helping to facilitate that growth.”


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