I had participated in a radio style telling of A Christmas Carol when I was living in California. We performed at church and I was in charge of sound effects. As I remember it, it went over pretty well.

In 1997, wanting so much to perform again I proposed to the Hammond Hall Players that we do a Christmas play at the Navy base in Winter Harbor. It had been done before with a melodrama called Murder at the Howard Johnson. They performed at the Schooner Club, the on base bar and grill. The players got in contact with the command MWR director and we reserved the club for three performances then got to work.

Since it was the Christmas season, we decided to do A Christmas Carol. I thought it would be fun to do the play as a radio program for two reasons. One, it was a story that everyone was familiar with. And two, having a single and simple radio station set would keep costs down.

This production marked my directorial debut. It was fun and challenging. It gave me a great appreciation for all the work that goes on "behind the scenes." I had acted with most of the performers before. Our Scrooge, Bill Monroe, is usually the director of the Hammond Hall productions. He was more than happy to let someone else direct for a while but was also very helpful when I had questions and needed advice on how to be a more effective director. A lot of the work was done by my producers, Ramona McIntyre and Roseanne Shafer. They handled all the costs, prepared the script and bore the brunt of most of the headaches involved with the production. They were great.

Mark "Stage Hand" Tucker and Bill "Scrooge" Monroe.

Alison Drinkwater and Caroline Fickett Alison did an excellent job as our "Ghost of Christmas Past" and Caroline played the dual roles of "Martha" and "Tiny Tim."

T.C. and Sue Bounds played Scrooge's nephew "Fred" and his wife "Mary."

Since we had to wait until right before the performance to set up our stage, we practiced three times a week at the command library.

Our "studio" complete with time zone clocks and program schedule on the rear wall. The set was designed and constructed by Gigi Davis, Ramona McIntyre, Hank Shafer, Roseanne Shafer and Stephanie Venskoske.

A close-up shot of the stage. The "On Air" sign originally belonged to a radio station in Texas called KAKI which catered to listeners on an Air Force Base.

Bill Cuellar and Stephanie Venskoske on sound effects. Bill Monroe as "Scrooge," Ted Alioti as a solicitor and Steve Robinson as "Bob Cratchet."

Jeremy Para was our sound and music supervisor. And also the only one who could smoke on the job.

We set out to entertain our audience with a classic tale about the spirit of Christmas. And we did an excellent job. It was a success.

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