On Golden Pond, written by Ernest Thompson, who adapted the play for the Oscar-winning film.

On Golden Pond will launch the 75th Anniversary Season of The Town Players of New Canaan at the Powerhouse Theatre in Waveny Park on Friday, August 13th, and will run for three weekends.

A feel-good story about relationships and nostalgia for summers past, On Golden Pond was adapted by playwright Ernest Thompson for the Oscar-winning film starring Katherine Hepburn and Jane and Henry Fonda.

The story centers on the Thayers, who have spent many summers at their lakeside cabin in Maine. This summer, tensions between the cranky college professor dad and his California-living daughter take a new turn when a teenager enters the scene.

Director John Atkin, of Norwalk, says, “It’s been not only a challenge but a pleasure and honor to work with Ernest Thompson’s script, in which he created characters and relationships with real flaws, like real life, in a sweet and melancholy way.” Atkin, who most recently directed The Heiress at the Powerhouse, feels especially fortunate to be bringing back live theater with this cast.

Stamford’s Ted and Gail Yudain, the real-life couple who recently starred in TPNC’s first live-streamed production, The Outgoing Tide, will play Norman and Ethel Thayer. Roger Dykeman, of Stamford, a TPNC ensemble regular including Dearly Departed, plays beau Billy Ray. Gillian Holt, of Monroe, who played many characters in TPNC’s Baskerville, now portrays daughter Chelsea. Tim Brandt, of Stamford, last seen in TPNC’s Romantic Comedy, plays the friendly mailman, and Zachary Helgesen, of Wilton, recently in Red vs. the Wolf, produced by the Middlebrook School Theater, delivers jabs as the snarky teenager.

Theater-goers might enjoy Waveny Park’s own “golden pond” just behind the theater for a pre-show picnic. Anderson Pond, restored through the Waveny Park Conservancy, with the support of the Anderson family and the Town of New Canaan, is a new “focal point of the park,” according to Recreation Director, Stephen Benko.

The Town Players of New Canaan was the first local theater group to stream live performances during the pandemic. According to TPNC President Deborah Burke, the all-volunteer theater has chosen upbeat and exciting plays for its reopening. The shows include two comedies, Noel Coward’s Hay Fever and Moonlight and Magnolias, about the making of Gone with the Wind, a thriller, The Turn of the Screw, based on Henry James’ novella, and the inspirational true story of astronomer Henrietta Leavitt, Silent Sky. New this year, the theater will offer an online seating chart and will add a children’s show with Open Arts Alliance. All CDC guidelines will be carefully followed.

Friday and Saturday performances begin at 8 p.m., August 13th, 20th, 21st, 27th and 28th. Sunday matinees begin at 2 p.m. on August 15th, 22nd, and 29th. A SPECIAL EVENT performance Saturday, August 14th, at 4 p.m., will include free admission to the Waveny Park fireworks scheduled for that evening if guests stay inside the park after the show.

Tickets for all shows are thirty dollars for adults and twenty-five dollars for seniors/students (with no additional ticketing fees).

Visit TPNC.ORG to purchase tickets and check out the upcoming season. Questions can be sent to info@tpnc.org.