Primghar Community Playhouse

On Golden Pond by Ernest Thompson Mar 31, Apr 1, Apr 2, 2000 Primghar Community Building.

This is the story of a spirited and lovable couple facing their twilight years. Ethel and Norman Thayer have returned to their summer home on Golden Pond every year for 44 years. They are visited by their divorced, middle-aged daughter and her dentist fiancè, who then go off to Europe, leaving his teenage son behind for the summer. The boy quickly becomes the "grandchild" the elderly couple has longed for.

CAST

• Norman Thayer: 80 some, retired professor.
  R. Brinkert of Primghar, IA.
• Ethel Thayer: Norman's devoted wife.
  J VanBeek of Primghar, IA.
• Chelsea Thayer: Norman and Ethel's 30 something daughter.
  T. J. Leonard of Sutherland, IA.
• Billy Ray: Dentist and Chelsea's fiancè
  R. Meyer of Primghar, IA.
• Charlie: Mailman who plies his route in a boat (pictured above).
  D. Zonnenfeld of Sanborn, IA.
• Billy: 13 year old son of the dentist.
  T. Mugge of Calumet, IA.

Directed by J. Martin of Sheldon, IA.

The Play takes place on and around a lake in northern Maine. The time could be the present. On Golden Pond was first presented off-Broadway in New York in 1978.

Single copies of the script are available from the DramaShop

Links and Miscellany

Great Pond is a natural treasure belonging to the State of Maine (Vacationland). The lake was symbolized by Ernest Thompson in his play (and later film) "On Golden Pond".

-- from the Great Pond Technologies web page.

There are only two or three water mail delivery routes in the U.S. and this one, on the Belgrade Lakes in Southwestern Maine, is quite possibly the oldest, dating back to at least just after World War II. A local campground and marina owner named Dave Webster ran the mail boat route that year and would continue for the next forty-five years until his retirement in 1991.
Webster became a fixture on the lake and a part of its history. Playwright Ernest Thompson's mother lives on Great Pond and when Thompson wrote the play On Golden Pond (made into a movie in 1981 with Henry and Jane Fonda) it is said that he patterned the character of the mail carrier after Dave Webster.
--From www.trueamerica.com

Director's Hints

TBD

About the Movie

Review