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<H1>Stage notes: Ohio native’s play depicts village life at Western Reserve Playhouse, Bath, Ohio</H1>
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<P><SPAN id=story-links> </P></DIV><!-- </div> --><!-- AddThis Bookmark Button END --></SPAN><!--end story-links--><!--end imware-center--><!--end bottomImware--></DIV><SPAN class=post-date>Published: May 31, 2013</SPAN><!-- embedded video html -->
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<DIV class=cutline>Playwright Ron Hill's House For Sale will be performed by Western Reserve Playhouse in Bath June 7-22. Hill is a resident of Old Fort, Ohio, near Tiffin. </DIV>
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<DIV class="hnews hentry item"><SPAN style="DISPLAY: none" class=entry-title>Stage notes: </SPAN><SPAN style="DISPLAY: none" class="author vcard"><SPAN class=fn>Kerry Clawson Beacon Journal staff writer </SPAN></SPAN><SPAN style="DISPLAY: none" class="source-org vcard"><SPAN class="org fn">Beacon Journal</SPAN></SPAN></DIV>
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<P>Small-town life in Ohio provided much of the fodder for Ron Hill’s first play, <EM>House for Sale</EM>, which will be performed by Western Reserve Playhouse June 7-22.</P>
<P>The community theater was intrigued that this comedy/drama was written by an Ohio native, born and raised in Tiffin, who has been a longtime resident of the tiny hamlet of Old Fort nearby. The play, which follows a 70-something widower in failing health who is being pressured to sell his home and move in with his daughter, will be WRP’s summer season opener.</P>
<P>Hill said the premise came to him nearly 50 years ago when he passed a house with a “For Sale” sign in the yard and saw an old man sitting on the porch. He wondered why the man would sell at his age and where he would go. </P>
<P> </P>
<P>Those questions turned into a short story Hill was writing for a correspondence course. Nearly half a century later, after retiring from factory work at Honeywell, Hill adapted the “House for Sale” story into his first play. </P>
<P>The play premiered in January 2004 in Fremont, where Hill himself played main character Glen Martin. It was picked up by Dramatic Publishing Co. in 2006 and is now performed throughout the country.</P>
<P> </P>
<P>Hill, speaking recently from his home in Old Fort, said that in 2003-04, he knew nothing about the format for writing a play. He’d get together with actors at Fremont Community Theater to test out and further develop scenes for <EM>House for Sale</EM>. </P>
<P>“They approached it like any other play and they really worked hard,” Hill said.</P>
<P>His play is set in 1956, the year he graduated from Columbian High School. Hill chose that year because in the ’50s, the elderly didn’t have the options of home health care or Meals on Wheels: They either moved in with their children or into a nursing home.</P>
<P>Hill, 75, has been involved with community theater as an actor or director for more than 50 years. He spent time in California as a young man, attending Pasadena Playhouse College of Theatre Arts. He also served in the U.S. Air Force before receiving a degree in English education from California State College in San Bernadino, Calif.</P>
<P>Hill worked as a substitute English teacher both before and after his 24 years working on a spark plug assembly line at Honeywell, a job that helped him pay the bills as a single father of four. Now, Hill has six grandchildren and two great-grandsons.</P>
<P> </P>
<P>Growing up in Tiffin, Hill never imagined he’d become a playwright. He aspired to be an actor and a teacher, and said he’s glad he’s gotten to do both “on a limited basis.”</P>
<P>“You’re not gonna get rich but it’s fun” being a published playwright, he said.</P>
<P>In <EM>House for Sale</EM>, as Glen struggles to preserve his autonomy, he decides to find a roommate who might be able to help look after him. He decides to interview six at once, and the situation quickly devolves into mayhem.</P>
<P>Prospective roommates include a husband hunter, a chatterbox teen, a drunk who falls asleep in a chair, a Jehovah’s Witness and even his neighbor Max, who shows up dressed like a hippie to assess the situation.</P>
<P>Interestingly, Hill has created two endings for his play, one of which offers a lighter option. You’ll have to see WRP’s show more than once to see if the theater goes for just one ending or alternates between the two choices.</P>
<P>Character Florence Ball is based on Hill’s late neighbor of the same name in Tiffin. Hill’s hometown street, Goodsell, has become the real estate agent’s name in the play, and Sankey’s grocery store where Hill bought penny candy is also mentioned.</P>
<P>Hill has since written <EM>The Ladies of Harmony</EM> and <EM>Harmony Romances</EM>. He is currently developing his fourth play, <EM>Gone Fishin’.</EM></P>
<P><EM></EM> </P>
<P>The play runs 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. Tickets are $12, $10 for senior citizens and students; buy one, get one free on opening night only. The theater is located at 3326 Everett Road on the Bath-Richfield Township line. Call 330-620-7314.</P>
<P>of broadening the audience of classical ballet enthusiasts in Northeast Ohio as well as helping students and parents revitalize their love for the art through ballet education opportunities.</P>
<P>Arts writer Kerry Clawson may be reached at 330-996-3527 or <A href="mailto:kclawson@thebeaconjournal.com">kclawson@thebeaconjournal.com</A></P></DIV><!--End entry-content--><!--End HNews Entry -->
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