A large crowd of Mooseheart high school students (in informal NJROTC uniform), plus faculty members and invited guests, watched the staging of the campus's first dramatic production in decades.

The ghost of Jacob Marley (Sam Rind, left) visits Scrooge (Brandy Carter) and announces that three spirits will visit Scrooge that night.

Scrooge (Brandy Carter, right), after his conversion, tries to maintain a fearsome visage even as he is about to tell Bob Cratchit (Darrale Ross, left) that Cratchit's meager salary is about to be doubled.

It has been literally ages since the words "break a leg" meant anything more than an injury crisis at the Mooseheart campus.

But those words took on their traditional theatrical meaning of "good luck" this fall.

Mooseheart's high school and middle school students performed an adaptation of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" for students, faculty and Moose International employees on Dec, 15 in the school's cafetorium.

The play, a John Higgins adaptation of Dickens' work, featured songs as well as most of the most recognizable lines from the book. The production was the first full-scale dramatic endeavor to take place at the Child City in "decades", according to Mooseheart Superintendent of Education Gary Urwiler.

The production was a rousing success in both performances, first for the school's elementary school students and then for the Mooseheart High School students. And it is further good news that the only crutch needed was the one used by Timmy Givens, who played Tiny Tim and closed the show with the signature phrase, "God bless us, everyone."