Harlequins: Staging plays since 1927

This story was featured in the December 2022 edition of Sandusky Living magazine. If you're interested in purchasing a copy, call the Register at 419-502-2130 while supplies last. SANDUSKY — When Harlequins Theatre staged the play "Mr. Pim Passes By" in 1927, during the Calvin Coolidge administration, it started a community theater that has lasted for decades. Without pausing for World War II, the 1930s Depression and other world events, Harlequins continues to mount productions each theater season, usually three or four. It produced "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do," a musical comedy based on the songs of Neil Sekaka, in late October and early November and is providing a live radio play of "'It's a Wonderful Life" in December. Although there have been seasons which saw only one production, Harlequins has never entirely stopped. It proudly describes itself as Ohio's oldest continuously active community theater. Harlequins has always been an all-volunteer organization, with no paid staff. And it continues to welcome new volunteers who will help it keep going. If you want to help, Harlequins welcomes you. "We can find something for everybody," said Sandusky attorney Donna Jean Evans, the current Harlequins president. "We'll teach you what you need to do," said Ann Marie Muehlhauser, who has long been active with the group. Act One The roots of Harlequins goes back to a local doctor, Dr. Paul Squire. Squire was a Defiance native who graduated from Defiance High School in 1916 and had the lead in his high school class play. He moved to Sandusky to practice medicine, but he wanted to continue in theater. So in September 1927, Squire invited other local men and women to a meeting in McKittrick's Tea Room on East Adams Street, and Harlequins was organized. The first season, 1927-28, featured three productions, "Mr. Pim Passes By," "Outward Bound" and "You and I." Comedies have always been a mainstay at Harlequins. And the first production, "Mr. Pim Passes By," was a comedy about confusion in an English household when an elderly visitor's faulty memory leads a couple to think they accidentally may have a bigamous marriage. (Spoiler: The situation gets cleared up.) Harlequins staged the play to a full house at the Old Calvary Guild House on First Street. Two additional performances were added. The play was by A.A. Milne, whose successful career as a playwright is now forgotten because of the success of Milne's Winnie the Pooh books. "Outward Bound," written in 1923 by Sutton Vane, is about passengers on an ocean liner who eventually realize they are dead and that they face judgment. "You And I," written by Philip Barry and first staged on Broadway in 1923, concerned a businessman who gives up art for money. In 1935, Squire married Norwalk native Marjorie Sherrard at Calvary Episcopal Church in Sandusky. Marjorie Squire, invariably identified in newspaper articles as "Mrs. Paul Squire," also was very active in Harlequins over the years. For example, in 1958 she directed a production of the play "Kind Sir." Even the Squires' pet parrot once got in the act. During a 1945 production of "Kiss and Tell," a parrot inside a cage that was part of the stage set walked out and went on top of the cage, distracting the audience. Only the "hilarious lines of young Dave Scheid" brought the audience back to the play, according to a newspaper account. Squire moved to San Diego in 1962 to serve as an industrial medical officer in the U.S. Navy, but he continued his interest in theater, performing in local productions in the San Diego area. Even then, according to a 1965 article in the Sandusky Register, Squire tried to return to Sandusky once a year to see a show or at least a meeting and stay in touch. While Squire was a gifted amateur, his sister, Katherine Squire (1903-95) enjoyed a long career as an actress on Broadway, on television (including "The Twilight Zone" and the "Search for Tomorrow" soap opera) and in movies, including "Two Lane Blacktop" (1971) and her last film, "When Harry Met Sally" (1989). Searching for a home Harlequins did not have a home for its productions in the early years, so plays were mounted in locations that included local schools, churches, an attic and a warehouse. After years of performing in various locations, Harlequins finally relocated to the Coach House Theatre at 414 Wayne Street, although it was a gradual process. In the 1940s, when the Business Women's Club owned a building at 414 Wayne and the smaller coach house in the rear, Harlequins agreed on a lease with the club for the smaller building. Harlequins used the coach house for rehearsals and meetings and built sets there, hauling them over to the high school, then two blocks away, for performances. Finally in 1958, Squire and Jack Mullaney, a former Harlequins president, went to the Business Women's Club and obtained a long term lease for the coach house. Volunteers removed the old horse stalls, put in a concrete floor and made other changes to allow the site to serve as a theater. Additions were made to the building to make it easier to present productions, although seating and parking remained limited. Coach House Theatre seats 97 people in cozy circumstances; Trinity United Methodist Church lets Harlequins use the parking lot during productions. Harlequins eventually bought the building from the Business Women's Club, which was shutting down, but struggled to deal with maintenance and other issues. Harlequins sold the buildings but obtained a 99-year lease for Coach House Theatre. Amateurs, but at least one professional Amateur actors and singers, rather than professionals, are at the heart of what the community theater does. Anna Lurkey, the director of "Breaking Up is Hard to Do," the just completed musical based on Neil Sedaka's songs, said her cast all had day jobs. Lurkey told the Register that the players included a professional chef, a retired teacher, a Kalahari employee who unloads freight at the docks, a woman who works with computers and a woman who cuts hair and raises bees. The hairdresser, Sarah Engemann, demonstrated that she has a great singing voice and also can dance and act, Lurkey noted. Live performances before an audience can provide moments of unexpected excitement. During one show, a performance of "Dearly Departed," somebody bumped into a light that was illuminating the stage. The actors have to move to a spot where they could be seen, Muehlhauser recalled. Muehlhauser acted in a show which called for the lights to be turned out while she was dusting. The lights stayed on, so Muehlhauser simply kept dusting until the cue finally was remembered. "You will have actors who all of a sudden just miss their line, or skip three or four pages of the script. You don't know if they are going to go back," Evans said. "It's live theater. You have no control." But although Harlequins relies on amateurs, it has at least one former member with a successful career in Hollywood. Randy Westgate, who acted and did makeup for shows for Harlequins, has experience as a writer, director and producer, but is best known as a makeup expert. He has racked up dozens of credits for his makeup work on TV shows and movies, including films such as "Fight Club," "Mulholland Drive," "Red Dragon" and "The Incredible Hulk." Harlequins Theatre's newest production, scheduled to be performed as this magazine is released, is "It's a Wonderful Life." The classic holiday story, directed by Jennifer Wertz, is being performed as a live radio broadcast, recreating the kind of performances common before television arrived. "It's not going to be like the movie, it's a radio production," Evans said. "The whole idea is to bring people back to the 1940s.