I have to admit: seeing your name in lights is cool, even if it’s just on the marquee of the Licking County Players Theatre in Newark, Ohio.

The year was 2002.  The previous autumn, The Last Christmas Carol had been published by Dramatic Publishing, Woodstock, Illinois.  However, it was too late in the year for anyone to stage a production.  Coincidentally, I had decided it would be nice to get back in touch with Edie Norlin, an actor who had taken my daughter, Elise, “under her wing” when they were performing together in a Rose Briar Shakespeare Company production of Romeo & Juliet.

Elise was 8 or 9 at the time, but had made such an impression upon the adult actors when she auditioned for the show that they decided to create a role for her.  Edie, who had been a member of a professional children’s theatre troupe as a child, bought Elise her first makeup kit, showed her how to use it, and, generally, watched out after her.  I thought Edie might like to know what Elise had been up to during the intervening years.

Shortly after The Last Christmas Carol was published, Elise and I drove to Newark to meet Edie for lunch.  When I asked her whether she was still acting, she told me that she was on the board of the Licking County Players.  I had brought along a copy of the playbook to give her simply because it had Elise’s name in it as a member of the original cast.  However, Edie said that it sounded like something LCP might want to do and she would submit it to them for consideration.

That is how the third production of The Last Christmas Carol came about and how I met the show’s director, Melvin C. Spring.  I was impressed with the quality of the production, particularly in view of the limitations of the tiny theater.  Mel said he loved the script and would be interested in looking at anything else I might write.  Five years later, I took him up on his offer.

One of the stories I remember about this production is that the actor who played the role of “Blue Christmas” (the Elvis impersonator) was banged up in an automobile accident just before the opening and, basically, came from the hospital to the theater in the best tradition of “the show must go on!”  However, the guy who stole the show was the actor who portrayed “J. Pilkington Burpee” (a theater critic) as Truman Capote.  Now, I wish I had that on tape!