Here’s how I first saw Peninsula Players.
I was new to Door County and the Door County Advocate in the summer of 1999. It’s not the best time of year to start a new job at a resort community, and I was wiped out from learning a new job on the fly. My head was spinning and I was bone tired, but I still needed to head out on a Tuesday evening to see a show.
When I walked onto the theater’s grounds and heard the waves of Green Bay hitting the shore, and then watched the sunset, all of my aches – both mental and physical – faded away. Once the show began, I was hooked on Peninsula Players.
What makes Peninsula Players unique? Maybe longtime performer Tom Mula says it best. “Beauty, beauty, beauty. Living in a cedar forest, waves lapping you to sleep, what’s not to like?”
The mixture of the natural beauty outside and high-quality performing inside has kept Players a thriving, vibrant “theater in a garden” for 75 years. There have been changes through the years – from performing behind a motel, to its current spot, from its longtime pavilion and stage, to the recent multi-million dollar rebuilding – but the essential nature of the company has not changed. This is a place where actors, crew, and the audience get to “play” together amid nature’s splendor.
Humble Beginnings
Peninsula Players started humbly enough, with a run of Noel Coward’s, “Hay Fever,” behind the Bonnie Brook Cottage and Motel in Fish Creek. Carolyn and Richard Fisher were young and new to being producers, but they had a dream of an artistic utopia set amid the natural splendor of Door County.
It only took a couple of seasons for the Fishers and Players to outgrow their original home. So in 1937, they purchased the 22-acre Wildwood Boys Camp and set out to make it their theatrical home. Players is still there, 73 years later, but it hasn’t always been easy. There have been setbacks and a near financial collapse after the pavilion was added in the early 1950s. New blood began to guide Players, including longtime producer, Jim McKenzie. The theater thrived artistically and can now claim to be the oldest professional resident summer theatre in the United States.
Each summer, a company of actors are hired, who troop up to Door County and spend the summer living on the grounds. Company members often will find themselves rehearsing for one show during the day and acting in another in the evening. The turnaround is quick, too. Shows close on Sundays and the new one opens the following Wednesday (until a few years ago, this opening was Tuesday, making for plenty of all-night strike sessions).
Greg Vinkler first visited Peninsula Players in 1984, but it wouldn’t be for a few years before the actor spent his first summer with the company.
“It was very summer camp-like. My first summer there I was in the old dorm in a room at the front of the building and I loved it. I could hear the waves from the bay at night. It was very rustic. And I really enjoyed that. I really enjoyed being in the area, loved taking walks up there, exploring, finding new things; found that all to be very fun,” he said.
Vinkler didn’t stop after that first summer. He became a fixture on and off stage, acting and directing in numerous productions. He now is Players’ artistic director. (And while he has been acting on Broadway in “West Side Story,” he will be back in 2010 at Players.)
Affected by History
Walking into a company that was by then already 50 years old, Vinkler couldn’t help but be affected by the history. “The backstage in the old theater, the walls were covered with signatures and messages from the past years,” he said.
Jim Maronek first came to Peninsula Players as a teenager in 1950. “My first, thrilling impression of the Peninsula Players was the billboard it had on Highway 42; where the bus dropped me off on my way to my first professional job as set designer, at age 17. My first task was to repaint the billboard. The Players’ first impression of me was different. Mama Fisher, the matriarch of the company, took one look at me and declared, ‘He’s too young.’”
Maronek, who designed sets in Chicago and around the country for decades before “retiring” to Door County, spent several seasons in the 1950s at Players, mainly backstage.
“I detested the idea of being on stage. Nevertheless, I was “inscripted” into the role of Bellboy in ‘Born Yesterday’ in 1950. My only line, was ‘Yes, sir!’ which I delivered facing upstage out of stage fright and embarrassment. It was, by mutual agreement, my first and last speaking part in any theater.”
Over 75 years, Peninsula Players has drawn plenty of famous names, from Sam Wanamaker (whose career was topped by the recreation of the Globe Theatre in London), Stacy Keach, Sr., Rene Auberjonois and Harvey Korman. Other performers became mainstays at the company like Bob Thompson, whose first turn came in 1938 and his performances continued until the early 21st century.
Maronek also hasn’t stopped working for Players. His latest creation will be on display this summer as he takes on the challenge of Stephen Sondheim’s “A Little Night Music.”
“The Peninsula Players is special, not just for the actors and the audience, but for everyone involved; in the kitchen, the garden, the office, and in the wings. That is summarized by its slogan, ‘Once a Player, Always a Player.’ We are a family with a stunning home, a magnificent back yard, a treasured tradition and a noble cause. It shows on stage.”
Though the renovations may have changed the surface of Peninsula Players – and, it must be noted, the old stage house was not just inadequate, but on the verge of being dangerous – the inside heart has not, Vinkler insists.
“I have made a conscious effort to maintain the summer camp quality of the place. We’ve replaced some buildings that were way too old and falling down, but we made a great effort to keep what we could preserve,” he said. “Today in 2010, there is a direct link back to the theater’s beginnings in 1935. We made a conscious effort to retain the feeling for us and the audience, but modernizing it so it was safe and user friendly.”
Favorite Moments
Twenty-plus years with the company, and acting in more than 40 shows has left Vinkler with plenty of favorite moments, including his leading role as Thomas More in “A Man For All Seasons” and King Henry in “The Lion in Winter.”
For Mula, many of the best memories come from what ends up on stage at the theater, from Vinkler’s legendary turn as Salieri in “Amadeus” (also one of the actor’s favorite moments) to former producer Todd Schmidt’s directing effort (and “Jim Maronek’s wonderful set”) on “Cabaret.”
Often, it just gets back to location.
“I love driving onto the property every year, breathing in the beauty, greeting old friends, anticipating the magic we’ll attempt − again this year −and finally feeling the ache in my cheeks from the grin that has been plastered on my face all day,” says Carmen Roman, another longtime performer whose turn in “Master Class” opened the new theater in 2006.
“I love watching the audience applaud a sunset before they enter the theater,” Roman adds. “I love seeing audience members year after year who talk about their favorite shows and how many generations of their family have passed through our doors. I love being a small part of the tradition of this theater that goes back an astonishing 75 years − to share stories with our audiences in the great Peninsula Players tradition of excellence, integrity, and love. ‘Love and be Loved,’ that is Peninsula Players.”
