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2009-07-03

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‘A Christmas Carol’ coming to Ottawa in December

By CLEON RICKEL, Herald Senior Writer

That miserable miser and three spooks that scare the dickens out of him will play at an auditorium near you this Christmas.

A musical version of “A Christmas Carol” will be performed Dec. 13 by the Wichita Children’s Theatre at the Ottawa Municipal Auditorium.

“They’re excited about coming to Ottawa and we’re excited about having them here,” city clerk Scott Bird said.

He announced the scheduling of the Christmas classic during the city commission’s work session Monday.

The holiday musical, based on Charles Dickens’ popular tale of Christmas spirit and redemption, will be one hour long and will be geared to families, he said. Presently, plans call for one evening performance, he said.

The show will cost the city $5,000, Bird said.

Much of the cost will be to build a custom-made set that will fit on the auditorium’s stage, he said.

However, Shonda Stitt, in charge of Municipal Auditorium, has applied for a $2,000 grant from the Kansas Arts Commission.

The theater and the auditorium will approach local sponsors to help underwrite some of the costs of the production, he said.

“Shonda wants to keep the price of the tickets as low as possible to bring as many people as possible,” Bird said.

The same group brought “The Nutcracker” to OMA three years ago and does the annual youth matinee series at the auditorium, he said.

“This is the kind of show we need at the auditorium,” Mayor Gene Ramsey said.

City Manager Richard Nienstedt said he hopes the show will be a boost to raising the auditorium’s profile.

“I wish I had this auditorium in Fort Scott with what we were trying to do for the last 14 years,” Nienstedt, who was city manager of Fort Scott, said. “Even though this auditorium needs some work, it’s still a good auditorium.”

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