Nectar & Thorns: A Love Story (One Man Play)

Michigan playwright, novelist, and actor Raymond Goodwin returns to the Traverse Area District Library with his new play, Nectar & Thorns: A Love Story. Mr. Goodwin's plays are always well received and entertaining, the perfect Sunday afternoon event.  Below is a synopsis of the play.  Join us in person to see some fantastic talent:

Summer 1978. Missaukee County, Michigan. Joe Modders, 19 years old and home from his freshman year at CMU, is the sole employee of the Merrinsville Historical Village. It is early June and since the grand opening the Village has attracted exactly zero visitors. Joe sits in his office (which is also the hotdog stand) and waits. Occasionally, he arises from his stupor to stroll between the buildings, curse the gophers, and drink an unearthly amount of Coca-Cola. Then everything changes. Mia and Maisy, 17 and 18 years old, arrive from downstate. They are refugees from war torn Vietnam.  They have wandered down to the Village from their new stepfather’s cottage out of a boredom every bit as intense as Joe’s. Maisy is spirited and sarcastic. Mia is gentle and often withdrawn. Joe is smitten. The long summer days will act as a salve, a sometimes harsh medicine that will draw out secrets and emotions that threaten the fragile world the three have slowly built in the heat and haze of that long ago summer.