O’Connor Daniel | Reporter

As sweater weather settles over Baylor’s campus, visitors are invited to escape the cold and step into a scene worthy of Dickens himself. The English Department will debut a walk-through retelling of “A Christmas Carol” 6-8 p.m. on Thursday inside Carroll Science as part of Christmas on Fifth Street.

The event, the first of its kind at Baylor, will guide groups through the historic English building to experience Scrooge’s story of Christmas redemption, with each room designed and staged by faculty, students and creative partners from across campus.

Dr. Ginger Hanchey, director of Literature and Creative Writing and organizer of the event, said the idea originated after watching her son help lead a haunted house for Midway ISD.

“It looked so fun; I thought that our Carroll Science building would be perfect for a haunted house,” Hanchey said. “The idea morphed from a literary haunted house — ‘Frankenstein,’ ‘Dracula,’ etc. — to ‘A Christmas Carol’ event, which was a great way to collaborate with Baylor’s larger Christmas on Fifth Street community program. Our Literature and Creative Writing program is a hilarious group of people, and they were immediately supportive of the idea.”

Hanchey said the event has grown through campus-wide collaboration.

“It has been a loaves-and-fishes enterprise, with everyone, including faculty, students and friends, bringing their creative offerings,” she said. “I am so moved by the extraordinary creativity of our faculty and students. It has been a very inspiring and hopeful thing to see.”

Hanchey said more than 60 people are participating, including faculty and students from modern languages and cultures, classics, art and art history, theatre, biochemistry, Robbins College, the journalism department and the Honors College. Hanchey said she especially wanted to acknowledge Guilherme Feitosa de Almeida, senior lecturer in musical theater, who has served as the project’s creative consultant.

“He has given hours of his time since this summer helping us give shape to our ideas,” she said.

Musicians from the Waco Symphony Orchestra will also join the experience, performing in the rooms that feature the party scenes, including violinists and cellists.

Dr. Kristi Humphreys, senior lecturer in English, plays one of several versions of Scrooge featured throughout the experience. She said the event is also a chance for students to appreciate the beauty of the Carroll Science building.

“We thought this would be a great way just to get people into the building to experience the beauty of it because our building was built in 1901, which is around the same time period,” Humphreys said. “The goal is to show them the beauty of what we get to see every single day.”

Humphreys’ scene concludes the tour, where she steps out in full Scrooge fashion — a tall top hat and unmistakable mutton chops. She will reenact Scrooge’s joyful Christmas morning transformation.

“In my scene, I begin asleep and then wake up to Scrooge’s realization that it’s Christmas Day, Tiny Tim is alive, I am alive,” Humphreys said. “The room fills with children running around, a full table of Christmas food and the Cratchits and friends celebrating. That’s the final moment, and we’ll have Tiny Tim say, ‘and God bless us, everyone!’”

Humphreys said the English Department’s enthusiasm reflects how connected the faculty are to one another.

“Every single day I have to pinch myself that my colleagues are so incredibly nice and kind, and they will do anything for one another,” she said. “I don’t have a single colleague that isn’t a master of empathy, and that’s part of this story as well is learning empathy. It’s hard for a lot of people to come to. And I never dreamed I would be on a faculty with 44 empathetic, wonderful people. So it’s a dream.”

She said the themes of Dickens’ novel remain powerful and instructive in the present.

“I think that the Christmas season in general, many of us find ourselves just being better versions of ourselves,” Humphreys said. “It inspires us to want to give and to serve and to do the things we should be doing all year long, but we often just get caught up in life. A ‘Christmas Carol’ brings the essence of that experience to life in a very tangible way with a man who was broken and miserable. When faced with the idea that this is all temporary, we need to spend our days feeling and giving and doing and serving the same way we do during the Christmas season.”

While organizers are keeping some details a surprise, Hanchey said guests will travel throughout Carroll Science, including its upper floors.

“We don’t want to give too much away, but if you come, you can expect a tour of our lovely building, all the way up to the creaky and beautiful top floor,” she said. “And don’t worry; you won’t get lost. There will be a ghost to guide you.”

In addition to the tour, guests will have the chance to buy Christmas books (murder mysteries, poems, children’s books and novels), to make Victorian Christmas cards and to hear children’s stories in the ground floor children’s reading room.”

The event is free and open to the community.