In Valley, ‘Scrooge’ is a family affair

With a nail gun, Jarrod Williams not only built a set -- he built upon a long tradition of theater in the Valley area.

Williams is one of many area residents who will help bring “Scrooge, the Musical” to stage this month. Performances for the two-hour show are scheduled Friday-Sunday and Dec. 12-14 in the Elkhorn Valley Community Theatre in downtown Valley. Cost is $15 per ticket to the show based on the 1970 movie that starred Albert Finney as Scrooge.

This holiday season marks the first time the group has presented a Christmas musical. It also is the first holiday performance in the group’s new theater at 103 E. Gardiner St.

Last year, the group renovated Valley’s old movie theater, which seats 175 people.

“It’s gorgeous,” said director Janice Lee of Valley. “It’s a cool theater.”

Lee said group members decided to have a Christmas musical to help raise funds for the theater and plan to produce “Scrooge” every other year in the future.

They probably won’t make much money this year, however, given the cost of costumes �” estimated at just more than $6,000. Scrooge’s costume alone cost more than $500, Lee said.

Lee credits costume coordinator Beth Eliason of Yutan who did the research to make sure costumes reflected the correct time period. She had costumes made or purchased.

“We got period hats for the men and ordered the Scrooge costume,” Lee said.

There are more than

100 costumes for the 44 cast members.

“Everyone has at least two costumes and some people have three,” Lee said.

Auditions for the musical began in August and rehearsals in September. Cast members come from many communities including Valley, Waterloo, Elkhorn, Omaha and the Lincoln area -- and there are many family connections.

Veteran actor Ken Petersen of Valley, who has performed with the community theater for more than 20 years, has the title role and his son, Darren of Omaha, who’d never done theater before, portrays young Scrooge.

“He’s absolutely wonderful,” Lee said of Darren. “He can sing his socks off and he’s a great actor.”

Perhaps that should be no surprise as he has “performing in his genes,” Lee said, adding his grandmother, Jean Stone, was the theater’s first director.

The family recruits don’t stop there either. Darren’s daughter, Makenna, and another of Ken’s sons, Eric, are in the show, too.

And there are many other family connections in the cast. They include Eliason and her three children and Neil Herring of Gretna and his two children.

Lee noted the musical has been a huge undertaking because of the large cast and show’s costume requirements.

The set is also complicated. Williams of Renovate My Property in Valley designed and constructed the Victorian street scene.

Williams said walls of the set are 3 1/2 inches thick. Instead of painting the scene on the walls, they have something akin to shadow boxes which hold actual props. The toy store window actually had Victorian-looking dolls and there’s bread in the bakery window.

“Each piece is custom-made. They all have operating doors and window displays,” Williams said. “I used a lot of actual construction materials to make the sets appear more like an English street scene.”

The street scene is comprised of four different pieces -- each between 5 feet wide and 10 to 12 feet tall -- which are all on wheels and bolted together.

Williams enjoyed building the set.

“It really was a fun project to do and you couldn’t do it for a better group of people,” he said.

Williams said the set will be stored and used every other year and hopes someday his now 16-month-old son, Rowan, will be part of the cast. Williams encourages area residents to participate in these types of events.

“It’s pretty neat for the children and family as a whole,” he said. “It really builds character as well as strength for the child to be able to stand in front of people and deliver lines.”

And in Valley, it’s all part of building on an area tradition of theater.