OXFORD – “The Last Doll: A Children’s Christmas Musical” hits the Oxford High School stage Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m. Co-authored by the late Fred Dankert and Diane Thorne, the play was the first ever to be performed by the Oxford Civic Theatre Group, back in 2008. Before Dankert passed away last February, he had invited Gail Murphy from Norwich into the Oxford fold, to take his place as director during the last play he was involved in when he fell ill. Subsequently when the theater group was contemplating its next production, they settled on one of Dankert’s plays, as a tribute to their beloved friend and founder.

“We chose ‘The Last Doll’ over Fred’s other plays for a number of reasons,” said cowriter and Oxford Civic Theatre Group president Diane Thorne. “For starters, it was the first play he and I wrote together, as well as the first play the Oxford group performed.”

“After four years we also have a fresh group of people for the casting,” added assistant director and cast member Diane Lewis.

Murphy is a regular feature of the Norwich theater scene and helped bring members of the Norwich theater’s pool of talent into the production. “I personally got interested in ‘The Last Doll’ after having heard a lot of people talking about the first production,” said Murphy. “When I did finally read it, I loved the first act, but felt that the second act needed some tweaking.”

When Murphy was brought on as director, she did so under the stipulation that she would be able to make some changes to the play. Murphy made a few rewrites, added music, choreography and dance. “Diane Thorne is a wonderful musician and she really created a thing of beauty,” said Murphy. Audience members who saw the first performance can expect to see much of the original while still being entertained with new and fresh aspects, she said.

“I like to write specifically for the individual cast members in a way which honors Fred by utilizing the fantastic talent we have, just as he would have done,” said Murphy.

Casting for this weekend’s performance began in late September and about 85 percent of the cast are new to the play, adding to the production’s fresh sense.

“We added more music for Kaitlyn Jackson’s character Eugenia Standish, because we really wanted showcase her talent, and take advantage of involvement of such a gifted singer,” said Murphy.