PUHI — Richard Peck has a few reasons to be thankful to his stage manager.
One, he’s been married to her for 58 years.
And two, she encouraged him to submit his plays to Kauai Community Players and the second of those plays, “Lovers, Wives and Tennis Players,” opens tonight.
The Pecks had been visitors to Kauai for 12 years and each year, went to a play. It was Donna who finally said to her husband, “Why don’t you give them one of your plays?”
“They don’t want one of my plays,” Richard Peck responded.
But she encouraged him to submit one to KCP, and he finally did.
Good thing he listened.
That first show, two years ago was “Prodigal Father,” and it earned strong reviews and packed the theater.
Peck believes Lovers, Wives and Tennis Players could do just as well. He cited two measuring sticks of success for a comedy: Laughter and ticket sales.
“It’s probably the second funniest play I ever wrote,” he said.
The funniest?
“I haven’t written that one yet,” he said.
Peck’s career is marked with success. He is a past president of three universities: Arizona State, University of South Florida, and the University of New Mexico. He’s published 29 books and authored 16 produced plays that have played in 60-plus theaters from New York City to Kauai.
A storyteller at heart, a favorite is how he won his wife’s heart six decades ago.
Both were in the musical “Oklahoma!” in college. Donna had the lead role of “Ado Annie,” while Richard landed a smaller role of Will Parker.
“We were both singing and dancing our way into the hearts of dozens in a little tiny theater,” Richard Peck said, smiling.
During a rehearsal, Donna was supposed to step off a stage prop onto a chair, but no one had placed a chair where it was supposed to be. As she stepped, she began falling and readied for a crash landing.
“All of the sudden these two arms came out and this lovely man caught me,” she said.
Richard, listening to his wife, nodded.
“A true story,” he said.
He had just wandered through a back door when he happened upon a tumbling beautiful young woman “stepping into nothing.”
“I grabbed her in self defense,” he said.
And he never let go.
It was the catch of a lifetime.
