This small group of performers from Ann Arbor's west side, the "5-6-7-8 Summer Players", started back in 1999 performing an abbreviated version of Dickens' Great Expectations group organizer Billie Ochberg's driveway.  At that time, the players ranged in age from five to eight years old, hence the name that they selected.  From there they performed at Espresso Royale on Main Street and then, in 2002, Nicola invited them to perform in her book store and that's where they have done it ever since.

They always perform either an abbreviated classic play or novel or a themed collection of classic poems or passages.  The group does not focus on props or stage directions but instead on learning and memorizing something from classic literature or poetry and offering an opportunity for kids of all ages to collaborate and have fun in the process.  They meet once a week for an hour, have a snack, play theater games and rehearse.  

They have four new players this year and five (possibly six) returning players.  A player from last year suggested that they return to poetry since they had not recited classic poetry since 2003 when they focused on poems related to speech -- everything from free speech (e.g. one girl recited Senator Margaret Chase Smith's 1950 Declaration of Conscience speech against Senator Joseph McCarthy) to speaking up about oppression (e.g. another player recited And Still I Rise by Maya Angelou). 

This year's themed collection of poems and passages, as suggested by one of the players, focuses on anti-war and/or peace poems from The Trojan Women to the present including Shel Silverstein, Wilfred Owen, and Robert Bly and several more in between.  

Past abbreviated plays they've performed include:

Great Expectations Charles Dickens (performed in 1999 and again in 2008 to mark our tenth summer together)

A collection of Greek Myths

The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde

The Imaginary Invalid by Moliere

Charley's Aunt by Brandon Thomas

The Servant of Two Masters by Carlo Goldini

The Rivals by Richard Sheridan