If a late 19th century house could talk, what stories would it tell? On the surface, this play reveals the secrets of just such a house through the lives of the people who call the house home over its one hundred year lifespan. But this play is also a comical and moving look into the relationships of those people, and how the views of men and women have changed over the course of time. In Act One, set in the late 1800's, we meet the original owners of the house, Kate and Jake Stenford. Jake has built the house as a token of love for his wife, but the project ultimately consumes all of his time and energy. When the curtain rises in Act Two, nearly eighty years have passed. Bill and Mark, two single young men who are renting the first floor of the house, face the pressures of friendship and the fear of rejection by the opposite sex. In Act Three, twenty years later, a group of teenage girls visit the now-deserted house to hold a séance. They find the house is haunted, not by ghosts, but by two young men who want to keep an eye on the girls. Their fun is cut short when a caretaker shows up to oust the youngsters, allowing the play to take a more serious turn. In the final act, set in the present, a young couple visits the house with the intentions of buying it and moving it out to the country. Like the young wife in Act One, the woman questions the amount of work that her husband will ultimately put into the house. She wonders if the project will be too demanding, leaving no time for them as a couple, but the young man manages to quiet her fears. Excited about the future, the couple leaves with plans to meet with the realtor and sign the purchase agreement the next day. With the house once again deserted, Kate and Jake Stenford return for a final time. They discuss their lives, and the house. Jake understand and admits, at last, that it was Kate who was most important to him, and not the house at all. Ultimately, they realize that it is finally time to leave the Stenford Place behind and move on.
About the Author: Kathy Campshure (a.k.a. K. C. Berg) is a 'tried and true' country girl who was born, raised and continues to live in Northeast Wisconsin. In addition to writing fantasy/romance novels, she also dabbles in writing research report guides and dramatic stage plays. Her plays have been performed by The Atlantic Stage in Myrtle Beach, SC, by Love Creek Productions in New York City, by the Mielke Theater in Shawano, WI, by The Green Bay Community Theater in Green Bay, WI, and by the Machickanee Players in Oconto, WI. She grew up long before the age of cellphones and personal computers, and spent most of her time helping out with the Holsteins on her parent's farm. She even exhibited cattle at local fairs, but that didn't prevent her from her main goal-which was to become a writer. She graduated cum laude from Lawrence University in 1983, where she received the Mary. E. Morton scholarship for a fictional story titled "Bonds" (which just happened to focus on assisting a cow with a difficult calving). Now, with the farm and her childhood far behind her-but not forgotten-she devotes her time to creating stories that touch the human heart and show us that dreams exist in all of us . . . we need only to believe.