HAWK Theatre presents original Menary play, "A Small Town Homecoming"

HAWK Theatre's spring production is the premiere of another original play by local playwright Harold Menary.

"A Small Town Homecoming," opens April 23 at 7:30 p.m., at the Lucknow Town Hall Theatre.

In true small-town fashion, it relates the goings-on during preparations for the eagerly-anticipated Old Boy and Old Girls Reunion held every 10 years.

Directed by Murray Yungblut and produced by Tony Miltenburg, the show features five seasoned HAWK Theatre veterans and one newcomer.
 

• Ben Miltenburg plays the crusty curmudgeon, Bill McMillan, who has lived in this small town all his life and knows everything about everyone.
• Jonathan Nelson is Calvin Hobbs who runs the local newspaper just as his father did before him.
• Lillian Abbott plays Fran Cooper who works at the newspaper.
• Lynn Shepherd-Adamson is Lillian Dalton who grew up in this town and runs the local coffee shop.
• Tony McQuail is George Henry who also grew up in town but moved away and has returned to clean out his aunt's house after she died.
• Newcomer Marilyn Miltenburg plays Mary Helm, another native of this small town who moved away and has come back for the homecoming event.

Yungblut says the major point in the play is that the more things change, the more they stay the same. People change, buildings change; the oldtimers don't know the young people in town but knew their parents.

"It's a play written for a local audience but it contains universal truths," says Yungblut who directed the HAWK Theatre production of "Dry Streak." "This show is a lot different; there's not nearly as much action, but there's a lot going on."

Whether you grew up in a small town or not, there are a lot of terrific lines throughout the play. There's the usual reference to newspaper people being notorious for having no scruples. There's the people in the coffee shop speculating on why Bill went to the city, followed by Mary quoting Mark Twain, that there are two sides to every story and then there's the truth.
Menary's previous play, "Suspicious Death In A Small Town," premiered at the Lucknow Town Hall, April 23, 2009, and was a great success.