Courtesy photo Depicted is a stage view from a performance of James and the Giant Peach, which Players de Noc put on at the Bonifas Arts Center in April 2022.

ESCANABA — Players de Noc, the volunteer community theater organization that performs primarily at the William Bonifas Fine Arts Center, enters its 60th year in 2025. In February 1965, at a meeting at Bay de Noc Community College, the “newly formed little theater group” of the Escanaba area selected a name and appointed its first officers, as the Daily Press reported at the time. John “Jack” Romstad was the director of their first play, “The Tender Trap.”

Players de Noc, in their early days, rehearsed at the community college and held their shows in the Escanaba Area High School auditorium. For at least that first show, “The Tender Trap,” Players rented props and scenery from the high school. Now, the group owns two buildings, which serve as costume and scene shops, and they rent space in the William Bonifas Fine Arts Center.

Players de Noc had a big hand in making the arts center – which had previously been the William Bonifas Auditorium and Gymnasium of the St. Joseph Catholic School. In April 1974 the build was sold, for $1, to the City of Escanaba and became the new home of Players de Noc and the Delta County Council for the Arts. The community came together to modify the auditorium to suit performances, including digging out an orchestra pit by hand and extending the stage.

60 years since the theater group’s formation, 60 is also the approximate number in its membership ranks, though many more are involved in bringing a show to fruition. Some of the members have signed up for life, even if they no longer live in the area, while many of the couple hundred people who take active roles in painting sets and acting on stage are often not officially members – though that would be ideal.

Still, big and small, all those roles associated with lighting, sound, costumes, sets, props and more are crucial parts that intertwine to make the grand work of art that is a stage performance come to life.

The first step for a script to be accepted as one of Players’ shows in a given season is for it to be submitted by a hopeful director for consideration to one of the board members. The seven-person board of directors are nominated and voted in by dues-paying members of the organization, who also vote on bylaws.

“We’re always open to hear what the public has to say. What do they want to see us do?” said Heather Grimes, director of the upcoming “Alice in Wonderland” and a board member. “If they want, if it’s within reason and within our grasp…”

When reading through scripts and selecting a season, the board has to take into consideration the cost of each show. One may require an elaborate set; another may carry high royalties. Katherine LeDuc, secretary, said, “The one thing that limits us sometimes is the royalties on shows, because the royalties are sometimes quite expensive.” The thespians reported that the royalties for the immediately previous production, “Chicago,” were about nine times the cost of those associated with the upcoming “Alice in Wonderland,” a stage play by Anne Coulter Martens adapted from the Lewis Carroll story.

The director of each show appoints the creative team: lighting director, set construction, makeup, costumer, etc. Casting and subsequent rehearsals tend to begin nearly immediately upon the wrap of the previous production, if not before. It takes about six weeks of calculated, strategic rehearsals and set building before a show goes on, or eight for a musical. One musical per year tends to happen in the wintertime.

Players’ productions have always used live music, performed by an orchestra in the pit under the front part of the stage, as opposed to pre-recorded “canned” music. It varies per show, but they’ve had as many as 20 musicians and their instruments in the low space at once. For “Chicago,” seven musicians were high school students from Bark River, Escanaba and Gladstone; other experienced musicians acted as mentors.

Everything is done on a volunteer basis. Some work, like prop- and costume-making, is done off-premises; Lee said she often works on creating props while at home. An arch that is under construction for “Alice” is being made from branches gathered by Dennis and Linda Simi from their backyard. Dennis is a retired woodworker and artist who also worked in the sets for “Chicago” and “Fantastic Mr. Fox” this season. His wife, Linda, is acting in “Alice.”

The set for “Fantastic Mr. Fox” was “ambitious,” LeDuc said. It involved trap doors into the pit that actors climbed in and out of and puppets that had to be scaled and colored to represent characters. “Alice” will be the first show that Grimes is directing, but having been involved with Players for years, she’s worked in the various areas and has an understanding of what different jobs entail. From lighting to sound to makeup – pretty much everything except climbing on the catwalk above the stage because of a fear of heights – “I tried to do something with every show for I think it was nine years straight. I did something in each one of the shows because I loved it so much,” she said.

“Now, being a director, because I’ve done all the little jobs, I know more of what I need — and what is involved in all the different aspects of what’s going on. So I think it’s really helped me, but I appreciate all those people on the way, like Kathy who helped teach me makeup … It was a mentor program for me for 25 years for me to be a director this year,” Grimes said.

Besides the shows at the Bonifas, with whom the theater group has a symbiotic relationship, Players de Noc has done performances at the Island Resort and Casino, Lakeview Cemetery, Karas Bandshell and the U.P. State Fairgrounds.