NEW PARIS — Preble Players will present their interpretation of On Golden Pond this Saturday and Sunday, June 3-4, at a picnic performace at Camp Mahanaim in New Paris.
Set in a lake house in Maine, Ethel and Norman Thayer spend their 48th year together trying to reconcile the past while the future is shifting around them. Under the direction of Bonnie Bertelson, this cast of six, John Munger (Norman), Lisa Marling (Ethel), Courtney Duke (Chelsea), Jeff Smith (Bill Ray), Nicole Simon (Billy Ray), and Lenora “Chrissy” Davis (Charlie) will be bringing laughter, tears, and comfort to the audience, according to Bertelson.
“One of the most prominent characters will be the set,” Bertelson shares. “Preble Players has partnered with Camp Mahanaim, owned by Ryan Toms, to create an authentic lake experience.”
Lisa Marling, founder and board president of Preble Players, acknowledges the support Toms has given by offering his lake as the backdrop for the show.
“Community theatre is about community. Mr. Toms has given us a great gift in allowing the set to be built on the edge of his lake in the New Paris, Ohio community,” Marling said.
The set is as much a character in this play as the people who inhabit it. The construction crew, headed by Scott Marling, and consisting of Pete Jones, Jon Smith, Rusty Garber, and Donnie Rose have built a three-sided lake house on the lake.
“If we enclosed the fourth wall, we could live in it,” Scott Marling jokes.
The author, Ernest Thompson, has created this love story that endures in its simplicity and beauty, and in its joy and sorrow. It is a story of love, forgiveness, reconciliation, and awareness that the sun may be setting on Golden Pond, but the song of the loons and the bonds of true love will weather any storm.
On Golden Pond can be seen Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m at Camp Mahanaim, 6336 Guy Murray Road, New Paris. Parking is available and a shuttle will take you from the hill, down to the lake. Bring your own lawn chair. This is a picnic production which means you will be seated on the lawn. Bug spray and sun screen are advised. Food will be available for cash purchase from Broke Smokers and drinks will be for cash purchase by Bike+ Tours and Events, or attendees can bring their own picnic basket. No alcohol.
Tickets are $10 each and are available at Eaton Floral in Eaton , online at www.ticketsource.us/preble-players or at the gate.