It’s a nine hour drive of more than 500 miles from Columbus, Ohio, to Georgetown, Delaware, but I was eager to undertake it in order to catch the opening night performance of The Last Christmas Carol by the Possum Point Players.  Although I didn’t know a thing about this particular community theatre group, I was impressed by the photo on their website of their newly constructed building and wanted to see it.  Plus, the name itself – Possum Point Players – conjured up images of The Red Green Show. So I dropped them an email to let them know that my wife and I would be there on December 4, 2009.

I have attended enough performances of my show to know that it is something that authors, apparently, don’t do very often.  I also know that it tends to make the performers anxious.  However, it makes me anxious, too, because I really don’t want to be disappointed.  Because when I am disappointed, I have difficulty hiding it.  Fortunately, neither the performers nor I had anything to worry about.  The Possum Point Players acquitted themselves quite nicely.  I enjoyed every minute of it.

The Last Christmas Carol is constructed to be something like a Bad-New-Bears-version of the Dickens tale.  As a result, if you don’t know the show, you are never certain whether the mistakes that occur are part of the script or not.  For example, we once had a kid burst into tears in the middle of the big Cratchett family scene and the audience thought he was just acting.  (I was told of another performance in which a child threw-up on stage.  I doubt that anyone thought that was scripted.)

The Possums added a few touches to the show that I, frankly, wish I had thought of.  My favorite was putting Laverne Spreen (aka The Ghost of Christmas Present) on roller skates.  I also liked it when she took a swig of egg nog from the carton.  The costumes were outstanding and really helped to develop the characters.  It was quite apparent that everyone involved in the production understood my vision for the show and tried their best to put it on the stage.  If the theatre weren’t so far from my home, I would go again this weekend.

The memory of their kindness will remain with me forever.  As Lewis Carroll would say, “I mark this day with a white stone.”