by Ernest Thompson

Directed by Jan Futhey
Produced by Gary Marton
Stage Managed by Karen Johnson
The Cast
Vince Delcalzo as Norman Thayer
Deb Sweat as Ethel Thayer
Mike Yonkura as Charlie Martin
Beth Lee as Chelsea Thayer Wayne
Manny Liotta as Billy Ray
Marc Dusini as Bill Ray

This is the love story of Ethel and Norman
Thayer, who are returning to retired
professor, nearing eighty, with heart
palpitations and a failing memory—but still
as tart-tongued, observant and eager for life
as ever.  Ethel, ten years younger, and the
perfect foil for Norman, delights in all the
small things that have enriched and continue
to enrich their long life together.

They are visited by their divorced, middle-
aged daughter and her dentist fiancé, who
then go off to Europe, leaving his teenage
son behind for the summer. The boy quickly
becomes the "grandchild" the elderly couple
have longed for, and as Norman revels in
taking his ward fishing and thrusting good
books at him, he also learns some lessons
about modern teenage awareness—and
slang—in return. In the end, as the summer
wanes, so does their brief idyll, and in the
final, deeply moving moments of the play,
Norman and Ethel are brought even closer
together by the incidence of a mild heart
attack.

Time, they know, is now against them, but the
years have been good and, perhaps, another
summer on Golden Pond still awaits.

Fans of the 1981 movie staring Henry Fonda
and Katherine Hepburn are sure to love the
Spotlights' intimate production.  

Script Reviews:

  • ". . . a work of rare simplicity and
    beauty, and in Thompson our theatre
    has found a fresh new voice."
          —NY Daily News

  • "…a rare and memorable theatrical
    experience…"
          —Variety

  • "What courage it must have taken for
    Mr. Thompson in the 1970s to write a
    play with so much affection in it!"
          —The New Yorker
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