As part of the Old Forge Library’s year-long Centennial Celebration, the reader’s theater production of One Hundred Years and Counting: Channeling the Past Straight into the Present, which was first performed at the library on December 4 to a packed house, will have a repeat performance on Tuesday June 10 at 7 p.m.
Mike Farmer in character as local businessmen and entrepreneur Moses Cohen.
The play, which chronicles the library’s beginning to the present day, was written by Paula Alida Roy.
Directed by Alan Saban, it starts out in the present with North Country Public Radio Reporter Ellen Rocco—played by Mary Ann Nelson—interviewing Library Director Isabella Worthen about the library’s history.
Through a unique twist, the present and past come together as founders of the library, librarians, trustees and staff are channeled and add their own recollections.
Some of the characters will be playing themselves: Library Director Worthen, former librarian and trustee Carol Hansen, library assistant Karen Lee and David Beck.
The cast also includes Kelly Hamlin as first librarian May Sperry Young, Jim Ulrich as first president W.J. Thistlewaite, Betty Rannels as trustee Mrs. R. (Ella) Lindsay and Mike Farmer as local businessman Moses Cohen.
In 1976, to honor Cohen, his son, A. Richard Cohen, donated their residence to the community to be used for the library.
Following the performance there will be a question and answer session.
The production is funded by New York State Council on the Arts: the Literature Program. It is free and open to all.
