As I got comfortable in my seat for the Monday-night dress rehearsal of Quad City Music Guild's A Christmas Story: The Musical, I was fully expecting a 24-hour marathon, as well as my ingesting the show only in sporadic moments throughout the day in between kitchen visits to fill up on ham and chocolate. That's customarily how I enjoy the film version. Alas, there was no marathon, or ham, or chocolate. But there was a fun production filled with holiday cheer - and aside from the addition of songs, the theatrical version is a mirror image of the movie.

I've noticed a common thread among amateur playwrights, in general, that gets me cringing a bit at the thought of seeing a locally-written play - or, in the case of the one-acts for New Ground Theatre's 2014 Playwrights Festival, several locally-written plays, which I viewed on Saturday evening. All too often, I've found these writers struggle with dialogue, particularly in regard to writing phrases and conversations in a manner in which people actually speak. I'm happy to say, however, that this is not the case with New Ground's presentation, as all four of its playwrights manage to provide believable dialogue and discussions, removing from the equation the distraction of annoyingly obvious and unrealistic speech.