Cast
Norman
Thayer, Jr Bill Love
Ethel
Thayer Charron Traut
Charlie
Martin Edward W. Wavak
Chelsea
Ann Marie Hultgren
Billy
Ray Ty Hendrickson
Bill
Ray Mike Williams
Cast and Crew
About
the Play
By Liz Egan
Located
in a fragrant cedar forest overlooking the waters of Green Bay,
Wisconsin, the Peninsula Players would seem the ideal choice to
mount a production of Ernest Thompson’s On Golden Pond.
Indeed, in March 1980, the company opened their production in Fish
Creek, just a year after the successful Broadway debut. The play
was so successful, it ran through the summer. Peninsula’s director
Bob Thompson (who also acted in this production) brought this same
cast intact to Chicago and then to Los Angeles. Actress Jane Fonda,
who had been looking for several years for a movie in which to appear
with her father, Henry Fonda, bought the
film rights to the play
and the rest, as they say, is history.
My
husband Charlie and I were in the audience on a perfect July evening
in 1980 to see the Peninsula Players production in their open-sided
theatre pavilion. The forest setting, the call of night birds,
and the gentle lapping of waves lent a verisimilitude to the play
that was enchanting. During intermission, sipping cocktails at
the adjacent refreshment tent, we were aware of the buzz of excitement
among the playgoers, awareness that they were seeing something special.
Some youngsters were doing their own versions of the Camp Koochakiyi
Indian dance and when an especially enthusiastic fish jumped in
the nearby bay, people laughed and said “There’s Walter!”
Sixty-six
years and 400 plays have passed since the founding of Peninsula
Players. A former General Manager recalled once: “It is said that
theatre in its simplest terms is two planks and a passion. The
two planks are easy to come by. The passion is rare.” The passion
was found that summer night “in the tent on the bank of the lake
called Golden Pond. On Golden Pond.”
About
the Author
(Adapted
from Gale Publication’s Contemporary Authors Online, 2002)
Ernest
Thompson was born in Vermont, the son of two college professors
and educators “who are not Ethel and Norman Thayer but might be.”
When his early career as an actor in television and stage
bogged down, he turned to playwriting because “the major trait I
have is self-discipline.” He wrote a group of three one-acts called
“Answers” in the early seventies, but it was an Off-Broadway production of his first full-length
play On Golden Pond that was his career break. Subsequent
plays include The West Side Waltz: a Play in Three Quarter Time,
presented on Broadway in 1981 starring Katherine Hepburn, A Sense
of Humor, The Kindness of Strangers, The One About
the Guy in the Bar, and the as yet unproduced Lessons,
and Human Beings.
The
following is a reprint from the program prepared for the 1981
Theatre of Western Springs’ production of On Golden Pond. John
Kavan played the role of Norman Thayer,Jr. John and his wife Marion
were long-time Active Members of The Theatre of Western Springs
and are TWS Active Laureates.
Acknowledgements
Produced
by special arrangement with Dramatists Play Service.
More Photos
Page 2 Page
3
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Production
Credits
Director,
Tony Vezner
Technical
Director, Troy Lee Brasuell, Jr.
Stage Manager, Sue
Turner
Assistant Stage Manager, Carin Klock
Costume Designer, Ginny Richardson
Costume Crew, Jane Bowers, Eileen Crow, Marilyn
Darnall, Mary Dempsey
, Darla Goudeau, Marcia
Grohne, Beth Hubbartt, Donna Sauers,
Jane
Stacy
Dramaturg, Liz Egan
Hospitality Chair, Carol Clarke
Hospitality Crew, Virginia Alleghretti, Tricia Boren, Brian Centers, Jack
Choice, Penny Choice, Al Dreifke, Liz Egan, Mark Favoino, Sharon Feldt,
Bill FitzGerald, Tom Frohnapfel, Pauline Gamble, Bonnie Hilton, Karen
Holbert, Mike Janke, Angelee Johns, Craig Mahlstedt, Jan Mahlstedt,
Debby Mills, Jon Mills,
Roxanne Moreno, Norma Naselli, Arlene Page, P. K. Parker, Katie Pecis,
Pat Rafferty, Susan Remy, Christa St. Peter, Nancy Schifo, Connie
Sierzputowski, Betsy Stiles, Merrilyn Tomchaney,
Gini Welch
Lighting Designers, Noel Smith, Rich Kropp
Lighting Crew, Mike Janke, Sandra Liakus, Paul Roach, Ruth Smith,
Betsy Stiles
Makeup
Designer, Karen Arnold
Makeup Crew, Lori D’Asta, Roxanne Moreno, Carmel Opre, Jackie Weiher,
Stephanie Williams
Properties Designer, Danna Durkin
Properties Crew, Jean
Allard, Brian Centers, Al Dreifke
Sharon Feldt ,Astrid Heymann, Dennis Hudson, Carol Hudson,
Mary Pavia
Set Designe, Rob Pold
Set Construction Chair, Bill Rotz
Set Construction Crew, Bryon Abramowitz, John Allen, Ralph Byers,
Anne Cahill, Mark Favoino, Mark Hewitt, Harry Hultgren, Mike Huth,
Heinz Karplus, Jon Mills, John Otto, Paul Roach, Dick Traut
Set Dressing Chair, Mary
O’Dowd
Set Painting Chair, Stephanie Abramowitz
Set Painting Crew, Bryon Abramowitz, Tricia
Boren, Jane Bowers, Brian Centers, Susan Deal, Donna Kanak, Frank
Kresz, Nicholas Kresz, Samantha Kresz, Tom Pfeil, Rob Pold, , Sandy
Squillo, Jackie Weiher, Stephanie Williams
Sound Designer, Jack Calvert
Sound Crew, George Dempsey, Betsy Stiles
Box Office Chair, Mary Ellen Schutt
Box Office Crew, Peg Callaghan, Susan Cardamone, George Dempsey, Terry
Fanning, Lori B. Proksa, Joan Roeder, Sandy Squillo,Carol Suda, Roxanne
Taylor, Marilyn Wilson
House Manager Chair,Bill Wilson
House Managers, Susan Cardamone, George Dempsey, Mike DeKovic, Roland
Imes, Bill Rotz
Poster Distribution, Kathleen Kusper
Publicity Chair, Beth Hubbartt
Program
Advertising, Cheri Campbell
Program
Editor, Bonnie Hilton
Program Crew, Alison Burkhardt, Cheri Campbell
(House Manager list not complete)
Having a part in On
Golden Pond is particularly gratifying for me because it brought
back many grand memories of the years at our own fishing camp.
Marion and I called
the camp “Jack Pine, “ and it was located on an island on Kakagi
Lake in far western Ontario. We were about thirteen miles by
boat from our landfall, and floatplane was the only other means
of reaching our dock. We had no phone or TV, but our battery
powered multi-band radio brought in Winnipeg very nicely. Some
evenings we even picked up WMAQ.
Although isolated,
we did have creature comforts. A small generator provided light
and power. A water system provided hot and cold running water
servicing our needs. Cooking was on a large propane gas stove
with an oven for baking, and a propane gas refrigerator/freezer
kept our food and fish preserved.
Our many recollections
include: black flies in spring and mosquitoes and deer flies in
summer (September was the best month with pleasant weather and
no bugs); drifting noiselessly around a point into a small bay
and observing a
buck and his doe watering,
momentarily unaware of our presence; the many loons and watching
their fantastic mating ceremonies; observing the playful otters
at a small stream, slipping and sliding into the lake (shades
of Walt Disney).
I remember the twenty
or thirty gulls that always appeared at fish cleaning time.
We had no problem disposing of the fish offal; the inquisitive
deer that approached the cabin and watched through a window while
Marion made the beds (they stayed long enough for her to photograph
them); the tremendous thrill of helping a fishing buddy land a
37-pound muskie.
But most of all we
remember best the many friends we made: both the natives, who
took “a crazy American” and taught him the wilderness and the
character of the lake, and the other ”visitors” to Canada, who
also had cabins on the lake and who cared and helped unstintingly.
Thank you, On Golden
Pond, for all the enjoyable memories you’ve brought back.
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