Students, staff, instructors and administrators at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire – Barron County are portraying the classic Charles Dickens characters in a holiday radio play version of “A Christmas Carol.”
UW-Eau Claire – Barron County is collaborating with James Wyngaard at Rice Lake Community Media to allow listeners to follow along on Ebenezer Scrooge’s journey on WYRL,105.5 FM during Christmas week and on-demand at ricelaketv.com.
The cast and backstage crew for “A Christmas Carol” include students Paityn Butzler, Eden Dellinger, Jon Fritz, Hunter Gehrman, Kale’a Hammond, Ashley Kilcoyne and Isabela Myre; staff members Breann DeVillers, Jennifer Duvall, Mary Hankins, Angela Katterhagen and Sue Kleusch; instructors Matt Coel, Kelli Coller, Dylan Loring, Quentin Vieregge, Lauren Wentz and Kate Worzala; and administrators Abbey Fischer and Troy Kozma.
The radio play is part of UW-Eau Claire – Barron County's efforts to revitalize theatre offerings at the Rice Lake campus. Those efforts include the following:
- A theatre workshop was held for high school students in October to provide lessons on topics such as physical comedy, costumes and improvisation.
- In spring 2024, Nicolle Sabatke-Orson will join the teaching staff to offer theatre courses in preparation for a UW-Eau Claire – Barron County production to be held on the Fine Arts Building stage.
- For the second year in a row, the campus will host the Rice Lake High School Drama Club for one of its spring productions.
