Well, the pumpkin has been carved, but before we tackle the turkey, let’s look a bit further ahead and reserve tickets for “A Grand Mercer Christmas,” a spectacular free concert for the community and one that will be recorded for broadcast on PBS television, bringing national exposure to Mercer University and Macon.

“A Grand Mercer Christmas” will take place at the Grand Opera House on Nov. 30 and Dec. 1, and while the tickets to this event are free (you read right), they must be reserved in advance by calling 301-5470 and picked up prior to 5 p.m. Nov. 28.

The program will feature the Mercer Singers from Mercer’s Townsend School of Music and students and faculty from the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings, including Amy Schwartz Moretti. Robert McDuffie will emcee.

Theater ahead

The midstate’s theater bonanza keeps on coming. The Warner Robins Little Theatre’s production of “Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Jersey Lily” is entering its final weekend, and I’ve heard nothing but praise for this production.

Next week is also the final performances of “The People Speak,” based on Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States” and directed by stage veteran Sydney Chalfa at Macon State College.

Meanwhile, the Backlot Players in Forsyth are opening “The Diary of Anne Frank.” I’ll be taking my 11-year-old daughter to see numerous plays this year, but if I had to choose just one, “Anne Frank” would be it. At Mercer University’s Backdoor Theatre is Lee Blessing’s “Independence.” Earlier this season, Wesleyan College did Blessing’s “Eleemosynary.” Now comes her tale of an eccentric mother and her three grown daughters.

A Grimm triumph

Those who missed the Macon Symphony Orchestra’s third concert of the year and are wondering how the MSO’s foray into opera turned out. “Hansel and Gretel,” based on the famous tale by the Brothers Grimm, was a major league triumph, with almost a full house to boot. It was the first opera the MSO has done since “La Boheme” in 1998.

Book signing

Former Alexander II Elementary teacher and Mercer grad Menlia Trammell, now a children’s author, will be signing “The Gift” and “Rob and Rick Prevent a Poaching” at First Baptist Church on Sunday from 12:15-2 p.m.

Contact Larry Fennelly at LarryFennelly@AvantGuild.com.