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.