TECUMSEH — Back in October 1960, a group of amateur performers from in and around Tecumseh who called themselves the Guild of Tecumseh Players got together to stage a single performance of the play “Charley’s Aunt” at what was then the Strand Theater.
Almost 66 years later, the Tecumseh Players, as the troupe is now called, continue to draw people living in and around Lenawee County who love theater and enjoy being onstage — and, in the process, have formed a community of their own.
“You get to go and goof around with your friends, you get to do make-believe and make people laugh,” said Josh Smith, the Tecumseh Players’ current board president. The longtime actor and director has been part of the group since 2022.
“Obviously, we all have a love of theater, but this gives us a way to get together and meet new people,” added Nona Bennett, who’s been with the Players for some 30 years.
The Players are producing a series of three short one-act comedies this summer, beginning with Kenneth R. Preuss’s play “The Most Viewed Least Watched Talk Show in History” on Wednesday, June 10.
The other two shows in the series are A.M. Dittman’s “Head Elf” on Wednesday, July 15 and “The Bremen Town Musicians” — an adaptation by Jon Krueger which includes original music by Tecumseh’s own Benjamin J. Nichols — on Wednesday, Aug. 12.
All plays in the One Act Wednesday Summer Series take place beginning at 7 p.m. at Adams Park, 309 E. Chicago Blvd., Tecumseh. The performances are free. Patrons are invited to bring lawn chairs or blankets for seating.
“The Bremen Town Musicians” was previously staged by the Players as part of their summer series in 2023, while the other plays are new to the group.
The Players choose their one-acts through a communal process of reading through different scripts to see which ones stand out. “It’s hard to find good 30 to 45-minute one-acts,” Bennett said, “but we read [several] and if everybody laughed, it was a winner.”
The series is the beginning of what the Players hope is a return to a full-fledged program after the COVID-19 pandemic put the brakes on their efforts.
“We did a couple of shows here and there after COVID, but not near what we used to do,” said Sarah Buxton, who has been with the troupe since 2024 and serves as its media outreach coordinator.
Smith said the group has a number of ideas for the immediate future. “We really want to reinvigorate the program,” he said. Among those ideas are a possible return to doing a dinner theater show and looking at different small venues.
“We’re thinking of other ways to bolster what the Tecumseh Players can offer,” he said. “We want to get out in the community so people know we’re here.”
Buxton said their goal is to get back to their former schedule of doing a couple of productions a year plus what they call “Reader’s Theater,” in which a cast sits around a table and does an informal play reading with an audience present.
The Players welcome involvement from new participants, whether on the acting side or as tech people. And “we love doing original works, so if a writer is out there …” Bennett said.
“Reader’s Theater would love to do the first read-through of someone’s play. That would be really awesome.”
Anyone interested in becoming part of the Tecumseh Players can email the troupe through its website, tecumsehplayers.org. More information on the group, including details of any upcoming auditions, can be found on its Facebook page.
One-Act Wednesdays shows and dates:
- June 10 at 7 p.m. — “The Most Viewed Least Watched Talk Show in History”
- July 15 at 7 p.m.: — “Head Elf”
- Aug. 12 at 7 p.m. — “The Bremen Town Musicians”
Performances take place in Adams Park, 309 E. Chicago Blvd., Tecumseh.
