Carol * A Christmas

The "Scrooge" in this unusual adaptation of Charles Dickens' plot is a high-school girl named Carol. Rather than money, Carol's greed is for good grades. She wants to be accepted … not by her peers, boyfriends, or her parents, but by the college of her choice. For the sake of a high grade-point average, she is willing to give up friends, fun, charitable work and school activities. Then she has a dream—a visit by three spirits who show her the happy little girl she used to be, the dreary unpleasant person she is now, and the unhappy, friendless woman she is about to become. The play doesn't say, "Don't study!" It says that study (or by inference, any other compulsive obsession) is dangerous if it is not tempered by common sense, sociability and compassion.