HILLTOWNS — When COVID-19 brought the world to a halt, the Hilltowns Players naturally halted with it. Now, after two years away from the spotlight, the group is back to perform “A Christmas Carol: A Live Radio Show” this weekend at Camp Pinnacle. 

The play is slightly unusual: Rather than a straight adaptation of the Charles Dickens classic, it’s framed as a fictional 1940s radio broadcast, complete with era-appropriate commercial interruptions and a Foley artist, who slams a miniature door and rattles chains. 

But it’s the play’s unusual nature that makes it well-suited for this unusual time in the troupe’s existence. Rather than moving around, as they would in a traditional play, the Hilltowns Players — performing as fictional radio actors — are positioned in a line before script stands, moving only to gesture or turn their attention to the character they’re addressing. 

Director Jeffrey Van Iderstine told The Enterprise at one of the group’s rehearsals this week that the players were organized with consideration for who they spend time with outside of the play, so, for instance, long-time player Penny Shaw-Bartley, stands next to her real-life husband, Rich Bartley, and so on and so forth. 

Also, because the play assigns a number of roles to each actor, the group was able to stage a play that’s smaller in scale, allowing for fewer players — seven in total, not counting the off-stage pianist, Jodi Ebel. And the relative simplicity of performing a fictional radio show helped keep costs down.

“We thought it’d be easier to absorb this small investment in putting the play on” if circumstances required, Van Iderstine said, after explaining the lengths the group took to keep one another safe as they rehearsed. “We were prepared to stop if we needed to.”

The players in this production are Penny Shaw-Bartley, who’s been performing with the group since 1982; Rich Bartley, a retired Air Force veteran who joined the Players in 1996; Lisa West, who is making her Hilltowns Players debut in this production, along with her husband, Bill West; Lilly Ritter, a Berne-Knox-Westerlo senior who is also making her debut with the Players in this production; Jennifer Draisey, who is marking her 20th season with the Players; and Steve Flach, who works at Camp Pinnacle and has performed in a number of church productions.

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Tickets cost $12 for adults with a $4 discount for senior citizens, veterans, military, teens, and children. They can be bought the night of each performance. Performances are being held at Camp Pinnacle on Friday, Nov. 19, at 7 p.m.; Saturday, Nov. 20, at 3 p.m.; and Sunday, Nov. 21, at 3 p.m. 

Camp Pinnacle is located at 621 Pinnacle Road in New Scotland.