"Business? Mankind was my business!"

Well, we are within spitting distance of Christmas now. Conveniently, I've come down with something. Cameron came home last week from a trip to Chicago with a sinus infection, so I'm really hoping that it's not that and I can just knock it out with Vitamin C and rest and not have to make a trip to the doctor. Too much to do! Cameron's family arrives on Friday to stay for the holiday, which means I have to spend some time deep-cleaning this little house. (I am still perpetually amazed at how messy it gets with only the 2 of us.) I also have to shop for food and get everything prepared for the cooking of my very first turkey for Christmas dinner!

In the meantime, though, I'll share with you my wonderful experience acting in a recent production of Dickens' A Christmas Carol. It was produced by the Estes Park Repertoire Theater Company, a little community theater here in Estes that has done 14 productions in the last 3 years. I spotted their casting call ad in the paper before we had even moved to Estes and I came up to audition. I did a lot of theatre in high school and in college (I have a minor in Theatre Arts) and I really enjoy it, so I was eager to have some opportunities in Estes and to meet some people. In addition, A Christmas Carol is one of my favorite Christmas stories and is very close to my heart both from a literature standpoint and from my own personal memories. Every Christmas Eve, my family and I sit down to watch the George C. Scott version of the story, so the story is very close to me and I was very excited to get to be a part of a staged version.

The version we performed was a much abridged version from the normal story. It only ran about an hour long and was narrated, and as a result much of the excellent points the story makes were "lost in translation" as it were, but I still think it was a good version that covered most of the best points. I was originally cast as Mrs. Cratchit--with a whole two lines!--and so I also invested serious time in the tech aspect, which is something else I also enjoy. I helped built the set and designed several of the set and prop pieces, including Scrooge's grave and the Cratchit's Christmas turkey. About two weeks out from the production's opening, one of the young ladies had to drop out of the play and I assumed the role of Belle, Scrooge's past flame, in one of the flashback scenes he witnesses with the Ghost of Christmas Past.

That's me in the middle there as Mrs. Cratchit--and actually I'm here half in and half out of both of my costumes; the photographers for the newspaper didn't have enough time to allow us to fully change in and out of our costumes, for those of us who had more than one role, so I really just had to throw some extras on top of my Belle costume.

We played the last 2 weekends to very receptive crowds. It was a wonderful experience and I'm very glad that I was able to participate; and even more, I'm very glad to have been so accepted by the theater company. I've never felt so welcomed by a group of people, and I think that speaks largely of the kind of community that we have up here in Estes. (If you know theatre people at all, you know that sometimes they can be somewhat standoffish, from a competitive standpoint, until you're allowed in the club, but I felt like a member of the family right away.) They've already asked me to join the board of directors as the Assistant Director of Productions. Next year we have on tap a production of the musical Nunsense II in the spring and in the fall, Ira Levin's Deathtrap, and any other productions have yet to be decided on. I would love to be involved and potentially direct Deathtrap, but depending on the timing I might not be able to because of the wedding.

Here are some photos to share with you from the production. All photos are courtesy of the Estes Park Trail Gazette and the Estes Park News.

Backstage with Scrooge, Michael Dzik, with his tombstone, designed by yours truly.

Little Tiny Tim, 8-year-old Woody Moreau.

Scrooge and the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come--the latter was played by 82-year-old Margie Corcoran, a former restaurant owner here in Estes. We had a very wide range of actors and experiences in this production.

Scrooge and the Ghost of Christmas Past, Mark Edwards. He is also new to town and the only other "newcomer" to the company.

The cast at large. Some of the roles had to be changed to fit the actors we had available--so for example, Scrooge's nephew, Fred, was changed to his niece, Elizabeth (Gracie Moreau, seated at left) and the Collector and the Ghost of Christmas Present was also changed from a male to a female part (Christann Higley, seated at right). That's me again in the back with the red and blue cape, to the left of Scrooge.

So, at this time of the Christmas season, whatever you may believe, I'll leave you with the words of Tiny Tim:
"A Merry Christmas to all, and God bless us, everyone!"