October 25, Saturday at 7:30 pm, Guilford continues its celebration of the 100th birthday of Welsh poet, Dylan Thomas, with his masterpiece, Under Milk Wood, a Play for Voices. Broad Brook Grange presents this performance, which takes place upstairs on stage at the Grange in Guilford Center, just two days before the poet’s actual birthday. General admission is $10; $5 for seniors.
The Packer Corners Players, our region’s most reclusive theater group, will be the readers, bringing back their 1968 private performance at Packer Corners Farm, and their 25th anniversary revival in 1993.
Three of the five players from the 1968 performance will be heard on Saturday: Don McLean, Verandah Porche and 
Richard Wizansky. Evelyn McLean joined the group for the 1993 occasion, and will again be in the cast; debuting this weekend will be Todd Mandell.
The ensemble will be joined by Peter Gould, concertina. Stage Manager Laura Lawson Tucker will provide the numerous sound effects.
The Grange hopes this play reading will inspire the continued and increased use of its little stage for more performances as they work toward improving accessibility. Yes, this event is upstairs. And the proceeds will be added to the Grange Building Fund. Someday … the elevator!
In this play, all the action and characters are depicted without the need for costumes, scenery or actors moving about. A pair of Narrators draws us into the pre-dawn sleep of the inhabitants of a small, Welsh seacoast village. We meet the memorable character of the blind, retired sea-captain, Captain Cat, who remembers his lost love, Rosie Probert. As the town awakes, we are introduced to dozens of amusing, eccentric, lovable residents, such as Organ Morgan, obsessed with music, Lord Cut-Glass in his kitchen full of clocks, Nogood Boyo, always in mischief, gossiping neighbors, schoolchildren at their games.
This is the masterpiece of one of the great craftsmen of the English language. When Thomas assembled the cast for the premiere reading in New York in 1953, just months before his early death, his instruction to the readers was: “Love the words,” and readers and audiences have been doing that ever since.
No advance tickets or reservations are necessary. Proceeds from admissions and the sale of intermission refreshments benefit the Grange’s Building Fund. The Grange is at 3940 Guilford Center Road, 4 miles west of the Country Store.
The Guilford celebration of the Thomas Centenary will conclude with Don McLean reading “ A Child’s Christmas in Wales” at Friends of Music’s Christ Church Christmas program in December.
Under Milk Wood is produced by arrangement with Samuel French, Inc, and with assistance from Monteverdi Artists Collaborative.
