“A Civil War Christmas,” the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright by Paula Vogel with music arranged by Daryl Waters, will be presented by the MCC Center for Theater on Wednesday-Sunday, Dec. 3-6, in Overbrook Theater. All four performances begin at 7:30 p.m.
Tickets are $10 for the general public, $5 for MCC students. The MCC box office opens Nov. 24. Hours are noon to 4 p.m. For reservations, call (231) 777-0324.
Pre-show commentary and insights into the Civil War will be offered by MCC faculty members Kurt Troutman and George Maniates on Thursday and Friday, Dec. 4-5, at 6:30 p.m. in the Overbrook Art Gallery.
Overbrook Theater will be transformed into Washington, D.C., on Christmas Eve 1864, a year after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. Subtitled “An American Musical Celebration,” the show integrates the singing of carols (“Silent Night,” “O Christmas Tree,” “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day”), spirituals, marches and hymns.
The play has more than 60 characters, including an ensemble of storytellers. Some of the performers will play more than one role. Among the show’s historical figures are: President Abraham Lincoln, generals Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant, Mary Todd Lincoln, poet Walt Whitman, and a well-known Southern actor who within a year will assassinate Lincoln, John Wilkes Booth. Composite and fictional characters fashioned by Vogel include an African-American blacksmith based on two black men who received the Medal of Honor, an escaped slave and her daughter, and a wounded Jewish soldier.
Seventeen of Director Sheila Kulp Wahamaki’s 27-member cast members are current MCC students: Shavonne Copeland, Angela Cudney, Evan Curtice, Shelinda Davenport, Celia Fuller, Donna Harrison, Tim Hegedus, Willie Jones, Amber Parker, Tre Wesley Perry, Sara Price, Tanischa Robinson, Aubrey Rolston, Ashley Ruiter, Deanna Runions, Kodi Schulist and Dan Stewart. MCC alumni and community members are: Kristopher Arnold, Edward Sanders Jr., Katherine D. Smith, Susan Stark, Ashley Hughes, LeAndra Hughes, and Anita L. McKenzie.
Other artistic staff members include: Music Directors Beth Adkins and Daniel Meyers; Set, Lights and Sound Designer Tom Harryman; Costume Designer Susan Eyler; Scenic Paint and Construction Designer Brian J. Goodman; and Student Directors Dakota King and Dakotah Salazar.