NOTE: “Today” and “tonight” refer to Friday, May 8.
PORT ANGELES — To mark the 70th anniversary of World War II’s Victory in Europe Day today, the nonprofit Readers Theatre Plus will present “V-E Day,” a view of the war from a woman’s eyes.
The play, written by Faye Sholiton of Cleveland, will take the stage for one performance only at 7 tonight at the Mount Pleasant Grange Hall, 2432 Mount Pleasant Road just south of Port Angeles.
Admission is by donation. Proceeds will benefit the American Legion Riders Post 29.
The staged reading features Karen Hogan of Sequim as Evelyn, an elderly widow who finds a long-ago suitor at her door one day.
Bernard, played by Stewart Harris, brings a box full of the community newspapers that Evelyn — Evie back then — edited to keep the troops in touch with hometown goings-on.
Evie and Bernie were young sweethearts during the war; theater-goers get to see them as they were, thanks to actors Pat Owens and Leona Voss.
Owens is also director of the play, while Brenda DeChant portrays Evelyn’s caregiving daughter, Aimee.
Karla Messerschmidt-Morgan plays Evie’s friend Lil, James Dries serves as the narrator and Kaylee Dunlap, DeChant’s 12-year-old daughter, plays Aimee as a young girl.
“This gives a very personal face, a personal heart, to the history,” Messerschmidt-Morgan said of “V-E Day.”
For Sholiton, a prolific playwright, this story is essentially about parents, their children and how the past — and roads not taken — spills into the present.
Sholiton hopes theater-goers will see themselves, their parents and their grandparents in this play.
“V-E Day,” she added, “is so close to my heart.”
For more details, see www.ReadersTheatrePlus.com.
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Features Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5062, or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
