Viewfinder: Preparing for a Play

The community theatre premiere of Jeff Daniels' Escanaba will be performed 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday at the .

Escanaba is the third and final installment of the Escanaba trilogy, which includes Escanaba in the Moonlight and Escanaba In Love. The production is directed by Jenifer Thomas with the help of assistant director Stephanie Kiser.

Set in 1922, Escanaba goes back in time from the first two plays to reveal Alphonse Soady, played by Tim Arrick, as he completes construction of the family deer camp in the wilds of the U.P. (For a Hartland Patch Q&A with Arrick, click here). He's visited by the eccentric James Nagamanee from Menominee (played by Bill Brezina) and the mystical Black Jack, an escaped slave clothed in a tattered Union army uniform (played by Decon Acrie). What's real and what's imagined? The audience will have to decide.

Tickets are available at the main branch of the or by calling 810-632-5849.