Earlier this summer, I did something I haven’t done in a really long time – attended a play at Peninsula Players in Door County. It’s somehow been about twenty years (maybe plus a couple more?) since I was last here.
When I was a kid (young teen?), a friend of ours, Robert Thompson, told my sister and I about an opportunity to volunteer at the theater – if we ushered before and helped clean up after, we’d get to see the play for free. I went to every play every summer until I moved away for college. I always wanted to return, assumed I would, but then *blink* – it’s two decades later somehow.
This summer, though, since I’m not teaching, I had some extra free time. (Well, I have free time, which is new.) The first thing I added to my to do list was to call up Pen Players and see about ushering. (And when I did, they kindly told me that they would start taking ushering requests in a couple weeks. 😬) So I called back, and I signed up for four of the five shows (I’m skipping the horror one 👀).
The very first Peninsula Players show opened on July 25, 1935, though they didn’t open on their current location until the summer of 1937. Those early performances were presented under the stars, with a canvas top added in 1946 and a permanent roof in 1957. The shows could then go on, rain or shine – just lower the side flaps if needed. In June 2006, they opened their season with an entirely new structure. (There are a number of videos with auto-generated captions on their website where you can learn even more about their history.)
All this to say – I knew that the theater had renovated the structure and grounds. But I had no idea how different it would actually be. The first difference was simply walking up to this:
I tried finding a photo of the structure I knew, but no dice. Needless to say, it didn’t look like that. And the inside surely did not look like this:
In addition to housing more seats, those seats are also now permanent. Previously, the rows were made up of those folding, fabric director chairs. These are far more comfortable. Also, the ground itself was gravel slanting down from the rear to the stage. The new flooring, which I just learned from a friend after posting these elsewhere, is also heated, so they can take the chill off when the temps dip. (The only thing I don’t love about this is that it means there are now steps to get down to the front, so row K is the only accessible row for folks who can’t do stairs.) They also added a hearing loop, which is a great addition for accessibility.
Despite all the changes, though, when the lights dimmed, I got those same butterflies I used to (that I always do). Because some things, like the magic of a place, don’t change.
Ami Maxine 