I had determined a couple of weeks ago that I would run the Berlin Amish Country Half Marathon on Thanksgiving Saturday, which meant I needed to run down to Berlin to pick up my race packet on Black Friday. Since Berlin is in the heart of Amish Country in Ohio, Mer and I decided to make a day of it, and we invited our friends and coworkers Liz and Dubbs. Liz teaches English at CVCA, and Dubbs teaches Latin, and they are both funny and entertaining people.

We started our tour of Amish Country by stopping for lunch at the huge Amish restaurant Der Dutchman. The were featuring a soup-and-sandwich bar that included chili, so I was sold on that, as were Mer and Dubbs. I think Liz got fish. It was an excellent meal.

Not to waste any chance of getting food in Amish Country, we headed over to the nearby chocolate store, where we picked up chocolates. We finished our food gathering with a stop in Der Dutchman’s fine bakery, where we got yet more food. Amish Country has a way of doing that to me and Mer.

We then drove the short distance to Berlin’s high school to pick up my race packet, where I picked up a packet for a former student of mine who was running with me. That went very smoothly, and I was in and out in under five minutes.

We headed home to watch parts one and two of The Hollow Crown, a British production of a film version of Shakespeare’s Richard II, Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2, and Henry V. Liz had family commitments and could not stay, but Dubbs made it through both Richard II and Henry IV, Part 1, although I think she may have drifted a bit toward the end. None of us had ever seen Richard II before, and it was really well done. This Richard was an effeminate and moody king, and was often heavily portrayed as a Christ figure. It was a thought-provoking production. Henry IV was very good, with my only complaint being that the combat scene at the end felt much longer than it needed to be – lots of fighting with no dialogue. We are planning on eventually getting back together to finish the last two movies in the series, and hopefully Liz can join us for those.

Thanksgiving was a pretty mellow family affair. It started out by having me and Meredith hosting brunch for Aunt Mary, for which I made egg burritos and chocolate chip muffins. After brunch, we played Trivial Pursuit, which, to my amazement, I won, beating Aunt Mary for the first time ever. Poor Meredith had all six pieces of pie while I still only had three, but she could not get to the center of the board and answer one last question to win, which allowed me to get back into the game and eventually win it on my very first try in the center of the board.

We went over to Dale and Carlene’s place at Cardinal Retirement Village for dinner in the late afternoon. The good staff of Cardinal put together a traditional meal, but getting just one generous plate of food kept me from overeating, which was a happy thing. The only thing missing was stuffing, which Mer loves, but the meal was otherwise excellent.

After dinner, Mer and I headed home, where we ate cookies and watched our DVD version of the TV show Lost. As I said, it was a mellow day.

I started Saturday off with a twelve-mile run at Sand Run, which features a really long (one-and-a-half-mile) hill on the six-mile course. That run went well, and convinced me I would be able to try the Berlin Amish Country Half Marathon again over Thanksgiving weekend.

In the evening, Mer and I went to CVCA’s fall play, which this year was actually two holiday plays – Yes, Virgina, There Is a Santa Claus, followed by A Christmas Carol. Yes, Virgina was a junior high play, while the longer Christmas Carol was done by high school students.

Yes, Virgina was done with a minimal set, since Christmas Carol was the more elaborate play. The play was cute, if a little rough in places with a few dropped lines and some actors being nervous. The girl playing Virgina was very talented and did quite well.

I am not normally a big fan of A Christmas Carol because I think it is done too much and has become trite. I got excited about this production because of the vision that the director, Brandon Davies, had of trying to stress the industrialization of society in the play and for trying to make the ghosts convincing and distinct. Brandon also got me involved by mounting two projectors to project different moving backgrounds onto “windows” in the buildings at the back of the stage. There were some challenges to that process, but it worked, and worked pretty well. Brandon also had me teach the students an Irish group dance for a party scene, which was fun to do.

The actors of A Christmas Carol did very well, especially the young man playing Scrooge. He did a great job of being a curmudgeon. As for the ghosts, the Ghost of Christmas Past glided in on disguised roller skates so she would appear to glide, the Ghost of Christmas Present was able to manipulate Scrooge like a puppet on a string, and the Ghost of Christmas Future was huge (the actor was on stilts under a huge robe). I have to say I really enjoyed the production.

Our church recently hired a new youth pastor, and he started work about a month ago. He is very friendly, and he and his wife seem like fun people, so Mer and I decided to invite them up our way to help them get to know us and a little more of Ohio better.

We took Tom and Kelsey up to Hudson, so they could see what a cute town it is, and we took them to Aladdin’s, so they could eat at a local restaurant chain (it specializes in Mediterranean food). Of course, we managed to see half a dozen CVCA-related folks at the restaurant, since the CVCA fall play was that evening and the CVCA folks were grabbing dinner before going to the show. That probably made me and Mer seem much more happening than we really are. We had an excellent meal and got to hear a little more about Tom’s and Kelsey’s backgrounds and how they were finding Northeast Ohio.

For the entertainment of the evening, we drove the short distance over to Happy Days Visitor Center at the edge of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. We were there to see our friends’ band, Bethesda, but it also introduced the park to Tom and Kelsey, who said they enjoy parks. That was great.

It was wonderful to finally hear Bethesda in a non-bar venue. The audience was older than that at most Bethesda shows, and they were very respectful. Since Bethesda was playing a two-hour set, its members were able to take their time and tell some of the stories behind some of their songs; many of the stories were new to me, and I have been going to Bethesda concerts for over three years. Whoever was running sound did a great job – the group sounded excellent, with the exception of the really high notes on the lead guitar – those were occasionally piercing.

Tom and Kelsey said they really enjoyed the show, and we had a good time getting to know them better. When things warm up and dry out in the spring, Mer and I will have to introduce them to some more of the excellent parks in the area.

On Friday, Mer and I headed down to Canton to see Aunt Mary. It was a low-key evening, but that is a good thing oftentimes. We got Chinese take-out, which was very good, and then we watched Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! on TV while I puttered on Aunt Mary’s laptop to see if I could fix some minor issues she was having. Good company, good food, and the bonus of being useful make for a good time.

Saturday morning was noteworthy in a couple of ways – I set a personal record, and Mer participated in her first 5k race. CVCA was hosting a 5k race called the “Run4Perry,” which was the first annual race to honor Perry Carroscia, a CVCA parent and active member of his church. Perry passed away unexpectedly last year, and the race was designed as a fundraiser, with part of the funds going to the family to help with college costs, and with part of the money going to a scholarship for CVCA. It was a good cause, and was in my backyard (indeed, the course ran though my neighborhood, giving me a true “home field” advantage), so it was a perfect race to run.

Mer had been asked to walk the race by a CVCA administrative colleague, and Mer decided to give it a try. She was shorter than the two women (the administrator and a staff member of CVCA) with whom she walked, but she was also a decade younger, so she hoped that would even things out. She said she was winded a few times, but she finished in 45:45, which is over 4 mph, which is amazing for a walk.

I had a really great race, helped out some by my familiarity with the course. I ended up running a personal-best 19:24, which made me tenth overall (out of 236 finishers), and I won my age bracket (forty to forty-nine years old). The weather was perfect for running, and the after-race party was very well organized. I won a small medal and a Bible for winning my age bracket; I went home very happy (and full from the excellent food). I was very pleased for Mer as well – she did quite well, especially for her first 5k.

In the evening, based on my fortunate discovery on the internet, I took Mer to Cleveland, to Playhouse Square, to see the musical Once. We were in the ten-dollar nosebleed seats, but since the main attraction of Once is the music, that worked out fine.

Once is the story of a discouraged Irish musician who meets up with a Czech woman who encourages him to make an album, on which she plays piano and sings with him. The play features lots of original music that is very good, and the chemistry between the Irish musician and the Czech woman was obvious even from the back seats. The play is not deep – it is about the music – but it does have some thought-provoking moments, and it does not end in any typical Hollywood fashion. That was a pleasant surprise.

The set was like the inside of a pub, dominated by a giant curved bar across the back of the stage. All the other spaces needed in the play were created using lighting; if they needed a bedroom, they would light a square on the stage and put some chairs in it. It worked very well.

One very interesting thing Mer and I had never seen: the show used super-titles a few times. Usually, super-titles are projected to translate a foreign language into English. In this production, when the Czech characters were speaking Czech, they would speak in English with accents, and the super-titles read in Czech to let us know the characters were speaking in Czech. It was also very effective.

I loved the play – the music alone was worth going to hear, and the ten-dollar tickets were an amazing bargain. Mer enjoyed the evening as well, and it was a good evening out on the town. It is still fun, even six years after moving closer to Cleveland, to skip up to Cleveland almost on a whim.

Last Saturday was “Mer’s day”:  she was in charge, and she surprised me by heading up to Cleveland, to the campus of John Carroll, where we met up with one of our former students, Kim. Kim is a freshman at John Carroll, and we were both very fond of her when she was at CVCA. Kim was in my Irish dance club and my improv group, and she was in Mer’s English classes.

Kim took us around the campus, showing us various buildings, including her simple, but pleasant, dorm room. We got to meet Kim’s roommate, who comes from Michigan and was very affable to two people she had never met and were not of her generation. I enjoyed the campus very much – it is spread out and features harmonious buildings made of red brick.

We took Kim out to supper; we walked to the north end of campus to go to an Italian place that was quite good. We chatted and ate and had a good time, although Kim noticed I was a tad low-energy from not having eaten much that day. After supper, Kim had to go get ready for her job, which was being part of the crew for the university’s fall musical, Legally Blonde. I figured we were there to see the play as well as Kim, and I was correct. We walked Kim back to the main part of campus before Mer and I turned around and headed back to the north end. We had some time before the start of the show, and we had seen a Ben and Jerry’s scoop shop near the Italian restaurant. We grabbed dessert there and headed back for the show.

Let’s get one thing out of the way – Legally Blonde is based on the movie that came out about a decade ago, and both the movie and musical are total fluff. Having said that, fluff can still be quite entertaining, and this production was. The music was upbeat and fun, the lead actors were all good, and the set was pretty extensive. The lead actress, playing Elle, was very upbeat, smiling and energetic throughout the play. She made her scenes fun to watch. Mer and I already knew the plot, so the interest was in the music and in seeing how the adaptation would handle the transition to the stage. It worked, and while I was not moved to mull deep thoughts, and I did not rush out to buy the soundtrack, I did have a really fun evening at the theater, and we had the bonus of being able to see Kim again briefly after the show.

The tradition of the “Educators’ Evening” at Playhouse Square continues this year, and Tuesday was our first time of taking advantage of that for this season. The Educators’ Evening is an outreach by the theater to help local teachers incorporate theater and theatrical arts into mainstream curriculum; they do this by providing an hour-long talk before a show, and then the teachers can get $15 tickets to the play. It is a great program, and they even feed us.

Tuesday’s play was Venus in Fur, a play about a director casting a woman for his production of Venus in Furs, his stage adaptation of the book by the same name by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, from whose name we get the term “masochism.” The original book is about a man who agrees to become the slave of a woman, with the expectation that he would be treated badly, and he enjoyed the treatment. The fictional play being cast in the real play is the adaptation of the book, and so the real play explores the politics of power between men and women, and between directors and actors, with the role of power switching many times during the play.

Okay. So, how does that tie in with teachers? The focus of the educational part of the evening was the cultural perception of gender roles. We were challenged to try to recognize these kinds of roles in the classroom, so that we did not always assume that boys “act up” and girls are “good.” We were also asked to think about broader ideas, like that mechanics would always be men and grade school teachers would always be women.

I talked with the African-American woman presenter afterwards, and we had a good, if short, discussion. My concern was that we were being encouraged to pretend men and women were identical when we are not (our bodies and hormones are different). The instructor agreed we are different and we should be willing to embrace differences, but we needed to make sure opportunities for both sexes were accessible and equal, as much as possible. She stressed that there was nothing wrong with “being girly” or “being manly” as long as it was an individual’s choice and the people choosing could express why they did what they did. That made sense to me, and I was pleased with that answer.

As for the actual play, it was really well acted. It is only a two-person play, so each player had a ton of lines. It was also a very physical play, with lots of movement and some intense emotions. Finally, since the setting was an audition, we were seeing an actor playing a director who was “forced” to act for the evening, and we had an actress playing an actress who played two distinct personalities. That was impressive.

I found the actual play disturbing, though. I’m not a fan of raw power displays, not a fan of unkindness, not a fan of lying, not a fan of unfaithfulness, and I found the idea of people’s getting pleasure from being abused and humiliated sickening. So, as good as the actors were in this play, and as good and/or funny as some of the individual moments were, I left with a definite opinion that I never needed to see the play again. I am still most grateful for the Educators’ Evening, and I am looking forward to the next one we plan on attending in March – Clybourne Park.

The plays keep piling up, but I get ahead of myself. We started Saturday out by going down to church, where Mer graded papers while I put up a temporary mount for a new computer projector at church. I hit a few snags, but managed to get it in rough working order. Sunday was “Friend Day” at church, and so I wanted the new projector up for that service. The permanent mounting kit was due in early during the week, so in the meantime, I improvised by making a mounting kit out of a metal baking sheet. It worked well enough to work for one service.

After that, we went home, where I took a nap, before Mer and I headed up to Cleveland Heights, on the east side of Cleveland. I took Mer to a theater we had never been to or even heard of – the Ensemble Theater. I had stumbled across them online and saw they were performing an adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, based pretty firmly on the book and not on the movies. I had listened to Frankenstein on iPod last year, so I was interested in how it would translate to the stage.

Pretty well, as it turned out. Because the weather was poor (cold rain), the audience was sparse, with maybe only eight or ten of us in attendance. The actors still played well, which was admirable. There was one fill-in actor who missed the occasional cue, but that is understandable.

Ensemble Theater’s solution to the wide-ranging action and settings of the book was to go with no set. There was a central raised platform, which was accessed under any of four scaffolds, which were used occasionally by the cast. We were told by characters or by a narrator where we were, and the action would commence. It was effective, and probably the only low-budget way to approach it.

There were only six actors, and two were always the same (Frankenstein and his creature), with the other four actors playing all the other parts. The actors playing the two leads were very strong. The other actors were good, but made occasional odd choices; for example, one actor chose to play an Austrian professor as a buffoon, which he was not in the book, and that was odd. The young woman playing Frankenstein’s beloved was very good as the beloved, but was weaker as the narrator Mary Shelley. There was also a place where a man was narrating, and they cut to a recording of “Mary” finishing his lines. If the director was going to use a recording anyway, why not just have the man finish his own lines? It was a little jarring.

Still, I really loved the production. It was true to the book and was intense in many places. The starkness of the bare stage and the suggestive (rather than literal) props used by the actors helped us to fill in details with our minds. It was a good theater experience, and we really liked the small theater space, as well as some of the productions they have coming up. I look forward to going back soon.

On the way home, since we went right by it, I do have to admit we stopped for dessert at the Cheesecake Factory. It is hard to drive past that place.

Halloween is usually about costumes and candy. We got the costumes part right, at least in seeing them. Yesterday, we used Halloween to drive over to Grove City College in Grove City, Pennsylvania, to see their production of Les Miserables, even though it was just a Thursday, and so a workday. It was the only day we could get tickets.

First, we ate. We stopped at the Main Street Diner, mostly because I love anything with the word “diner” in it. The food was quite good, and the service was good, but I might hesitate in going back because they had several TVs on, and I really hate seeing TV when I am in a restaurant.

Back to the play. Mer and I knew two of the students involved in Les Mis – one in the pit and one as a chorus member on stage, who even had a few solos. I am impressed that a college with no graduate students and only a theater minor (no theater major) could pull off a musical on the scale of Les Mis. What is impressive is that they did, and did so really well. The only negatives I remember catching were the occasional failure of a microphone for a non-major character. Mer and I were in the front row, and there were two or three times we could not hear the actor singing, but that was rare. The other negative was in casting – the young woman playing the main love interest, Cosette, is supposed to be the jaw-dropping beauty of the play. She was pretty, but the girl playing Eponine was noticeably more striking, especially with her long, dark hair. Even Meredith commented on it after the play, and we both thought the director should have had her tuck up her hair for the play so she would not be so pretty.

Having said that, the production was a colossal success. The pit was nearly perfect, the singers were all well cast, the sets were huge and effective. All of the leads were strong. While Grove did not have the typical moving stage associated with big-budget productions of the play, they compensated for it effectively by having characters walk around the front of the pit. I am still in awe at how well the cast and crew did for this musical. The notes said it was the thirty-fifth and last year for the college director, who was retiring, and he wanted to go out on a huge production. He did, and they all did very well.