Not even a pandemic can stop The Riverfront Playhouse in Aurora from presenting its annual version of “A Christmas Carol.” This year, 2020, marks the 27th year of the production.

“I’m glad we don’t have to break the streak (of annual performances),” said Jackson Schultz, the master of ceremonies in the show. “I feel like we would always have this loss on our record if we let this Christmas go by without some version of this show. I’m glad we can persevere and still keep the tradition alive, even during a pandemic.”

But the pandemic does call for some changes.

“This show will be all new recordings, pieced together from everyone’s homes,” Jackson Schultz said. “It’s a format we have all gotten used to with Zoom calls and such. It’s an abbreviated version of the show with some newer content to reference our current inability to perform in person, but we recognize that doing the entire show that way would be exhausting and boring. It’s mostly just highlights from the show, so it almost plays like a greatest hits.”

“A Christmas Carol” will be presented via The Riverfront Playhouse’s link to the YouTube channel beginning on Dec. 24 and running through Jan. 1, 2021. The show will be available 24/7. There is no charge, but donations are accepted.

According to Jackson’s sister, Heidi, the interaction among cast members will be limited.

“We will tape all of the different scenes via Zoom,” said Heidi Schultz, who will appear as several characters, including the Ghost of Christmas Past, Cora, and one of the Body Pickers in the show. “Everyone is keeping within their family ‘bubbles,’ so sometimes an actor gets to actually play off of another actor (in the same family) and sometimes they’ll be playing to a ghost. We’re keeping socially distanced by being in our own homes and recording it. We have also trimmed down the number of actors in the show from our usual 18 or 19 to just 12.

“This show will be less than an hour instead of our usual three-hour performance,” she continued. “There are some scenes and songs that have been cut completely and there are significantly shortened versions of other scenes and songs. Jackson and I went through the script and took out what we thought would progress the story along and changed the words in some of the songs to play off the script changes.”

Jackson and Heidi’s father, the late Jack Schultz, adapted Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” for The Riverfront Playhouse more than 25 years ago. Jack Schultz died in September 2012. Schultz’s version of Dickens’ classic has a traveling band of gypsy actors arriving in town on a circus wagon to tell the story. The twist provides a framework for Ebenezer Scrooge to get ghostly visits from his deceased partner, Jacob Marley, and the three spirits of Christmas: past, present and future.

“This new version of the show still gives you the Charles Dickens story, but with a taste of Schultz flair,” Heidi Schultz said. “The scenes that we kept were made shorter, but are still true to Charles Dickens’ work. Staying true to his novel was especially important to me; it was to my dad, too.”

An important contributor to the presentation is Kathleen Dooley, who will record and edit all the performances into a final production.

“We are having as many cast members as we can find from the past 26 years of shows record themselves singing the final song,” Heidi Schultz said. “They will send that to Kathleen, who will put it all together into one cohesive video. Plus, she will be editing together all of the individual performance tapes that will end up being the new abridged version of The Play.”

Costumes gathered from the troupe’s theater will be used for the individual performances on Zoom. In addition, the musical elements of the show will still be in place, albeit less extensive.

“Short bursts of songs will pop up throughout the video,” Jackson Schultz said, “but we don’t want to drag the whole thing out by focusing too much on any one thing. Kathleen has a few tricks up her sleeve to make everyone look and sound amazing.”

Also amazing is the new presentation form that The Riverfront Playhouse has developed for its group.

“I think just getting the video up and out there will be a major milestone for us,” Jackson Schultz said. “This will be the first time we translated and produced a show specifically for the internet, so it’s all new ground, in a way. Anything beyond that as far as a response goes will just be extra icing on the cake.”

And for Jackson Schultz, the show’s ending will be an added treat.

“My mom (Sherry Winchester Schultz) reached out to as many people as she could find on Facebook for the last song of the show,” Jackson Schultz said. “We realized that we have infinite stage space with this sort of presentation, and we are able to do something we’ve never been able to do, and that’s bring together performers from past productions and do a huge sing-along. It is the thing I’m most excited about seeing. I actually don’t want to know who all is involved until I watch the final version. It feels like a Christmas surprise.”

Randall G. Mielke is a freelancer.