May 27, 28, June 2, 3, 9, 10, 16, 17 - 1973
50th Anniversary Program
Earl Kelly wrote and directed this production marking the Players' 50th anniversary and Kelly's 20th year as director of the Spring Show.
The Magic Forest included excerpts from 13 earlier Player productions, all knit together by Rip Van Winkle who wakes up and wanders onto the Forest Theater stage. He meets characters from Alice Adventuring in Wonderland, Toad of Toad Hall, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Prince and the Pauper, several angels from Green Pastures, and a group from The Teahouse of the August Moon. Rip also encounters the Li'l Abner gang in Dogpatch, Captain Jim, his Forest Rangers, school girls and Little Mary Sunshine. He encounters The Hobbit's Gollum, and from The Wizard of Oz he meets Dorothy, Glynda, the Scarecow, the Wicked Witch and twenty-five Munchkins.
The Magic Forest had one of the largest casts ever assembled for a Mountaineer production. Ninety-four actors played 187 roles. Attendance was 3,870 for the eight shows.
The 50th Anniversary Program,(available for download above) has a wonderful history (both in pictures and in text) of the theater from the beginning. Here is a quote from the first page:
"The hushed line of people disappearing into the rhododendron blossoms somewhere ahead of me might very well have been filing down into that region of fantasy, where dwarfs and elves and goblins, even hobbits, live . . .
Music from some far-off source enchanted the forest preserve of heroic trees. The pathway twisted downward and all sound was muted by the density of the woodland growth through which it passed. It was so hushed that there was an air of sanctity about the place, and many of the theatre fans spoke only in whispers during the descent."
George Burley, Everett Herald
50 years ago the path to the theater was surrounded by blooming rhododendrons during the spring play, literally forming a canopy of blossoms as theater-goers strolled down the path. Since then, as the trees have grown larger, the sun has been blocked and the rhododendrons are not as plentiful.
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