A new version of an old story

While the story of Ebenezer Scrooge's redemption is a well-known Christmas classic, The Horizon Theater's production of "A Christmas Carol: A New Musical" will be both the regional premiere of a new version of the old story and an ambitious undertaking for the new community theater company.

A regional premiere

While doing their last show, Cory and Sarah Schaeperkoetter, the husband and wife founders of The Horizon Theater, were already thinking ahead to their next production. They knew they wanted to do a Christmas show, specifically "A Christmas Carol." However, picking the right version of the story came with challenges.

While many straight play versions of the story are available, Cory knew he wanted to do a musical. A Broadway musical version does exist, but getting the rights to it would cost several thousand dollars, and hearing back about getting rights to a major musical can sometimes take months.

As he was looking for more options, Cory stumbled across a different musical version of the story, written by a group from Texas called F&G Music. Cory reached out, and the group got back right away with a more affordable option to produce the show.

"We're glad to have been able to find it and to have been able to work closely with the producers and the original writers of the show so that we can be able to do it," Sarah explained.

Because it's a new musical, this version of "A Christmas Carol" has never been performed in Wyoming or anywhere nearby, making The Horizon Theater's production the regional premiere.

This version is also one Cory and Sarah connected to and were excited to share.

"All the music in the show is a beautiful blend of their original songs and some traditional Christmas carols and hymns," Sarah explained. "They're coming to a familiar tale with new music. So it's really cool to bring to the community because it's never been seen before."

"[This version] adds some more insight into some certain characters," Cory added, explaining characters like Marley, Belle (Scrooge's ex-fiancé), and even background characters have songs that explain more of their thoughts and feelings. "A lot of songs give more depth into the story."

"There's all these little moments and little scenes that show a lot more insight into Scrooge's character and into his progression and then through his redemption," Sarah said. "So that's really cool to bring into the story."

An ambitious undertaking

As the third production of the new theater company, "A Christmas Carol" is a big next step.

"It's everything we've already done, but on a much larger scale," explained Sarah. "This is just combining all of the elements all together, because you have music, your choreography, you have blocking and staging and tech and lights and sound and costumes. And we also have almost four times as many people in this cast as we have in our other shows."

While the previous two productions had casts of eight, "A Christmas Carol" has a cast of 29, as well as a crew of five people overseeing specific technical elements, with many people wearing multiple hats as both cast and crew.

For example, Cory is the director and playing Jacob Marley, Sarah is the music director and choreographer and playing the charwoman, Gabriel Garcia is the technical director and Ghost of Christmas Future, Zack Anderson is a narrator and lighting designer, and Ivy Kropf is the costume designer and Mrs. Fezziwig.

"We have a whole team working all together," Sarah said. "It's been very helpful to have so many people step up."

Additionally, most of the cast members have multiple roles within the show. Sarah explained she counted about 50 distinct roles within the story, so with a cast of 29, some small roles had to be cut and some cast members were double-cast (or even triple-cast).

"All the ensemble people have two or three little featured roles," Sarah explained, saying she thinks that works even better in many ways. "This way everybody gets their little moment to shine."

Working with such a big cast has a number of challenges, from the technical elements to details like organizing schedules and finding room for everyone and all the set pieces to fit backstage, according to Cory.

"It's been a lot," Sarah admitted. "It's been a combination of a learning experience, some stress, some risks, and a lot of reward coming out of it. So it's been really fulfilling seeing everything all come together."

One of the most challenging and rewarding parts of the process for Cory as the director has been working with not only a bigger cast of people but a wide range of experience among the cast members.

"We have a wide variety of people who want to do this professionally, people who are doing this as a fun pastime, and anywhere in between," Sarah explained.

"It's balancing that educational experience with making sure they're ready to actually put on a show," Cory said. "Because we open this to give the opportunity to teach people how to act, sing, be a part of that. But at the same time, we are putting on a show that people are going to be paying to see."

A community connection

While working with cast members who are totally new to theater has been a challenge, it's also an important part of The Horizon Theater's goals.

"I'm glad to have that challenge because it shows that we have community members that want to participate in this," Cory said.

One of Cory and Sarah's reasons for starting their theater company was to give community members with any level of experience the chance to be involved in a theatrical production. Another goal was being engaged with the community as a whole through opportunities like the chance to perform songs from "A Christmas Carol" at the Mayor's Tree Lighting in Rock Springs last weekend.

"That was the entire purpose of actually starting Horizon Theater, was to give the community a chance to perform," Cory said. "So any chance to give that back to the community that's giving to us is just a great thing to do."

Cory and Sarah are especially thankful for local connections that make these opportunities possible, from their sponsorship from Sweetwater Boces to their partnership with Kenneth Starling, the manager at the Broadway Theater.

The Schaeperkoetters are also excited to see how community members are starting to not only get involved with The Horizon Theater, but grow through the process.

"One of the biggest rewards is just seeing how far they've come," Cory said of the cast members.

"Because we have a wide variety of experience, I've loved seeing people's progression and growth from the first rehearsal when they're reading their lines to where they are on stage now," Sarah added. "You can see that growth in their acting and in their singing abilities, and them having the confidence knowing that they have improved. That's been really cool to see."

"A Christmas Carol: A New Musical" will have performances at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 9, 10, 15, 16 and 17, as well as matinees at 2 p.m. Dec. 10 and 17. All performances will be at the Broadway Theater in Rock Springs. Tickets are $12 for adults and $10 for children and seniors, and are available for purchase at the door or online at broadwayrs.com.