By Jim Hagerty
Contributor

BELVIDERE — The Main Street Players of Boone County are gearing up for their first performance of “The Hiding Place.”

The show opens Friday, May 11, at 7 p.m. at the Community Building Complex of Boone County, 111 W. First St., Belvidere.

“The Hiding Place” is the story of Corrie ten Boom, a girl who lived a quiet life as a watchmaker in the Netherlands with her family. As the story unfolds, Corrie, the writer, narrates a normal life in her small town until the Nazis invaded the Netherlands in 1940. The story then takes a spiritual turn as the ten Booms, a Christian family, began helping Jews avoid capture. Corrie eventually finds herself hiding Jews in her home and resorts to a barrage of petty crimes to keep them hidden. As it becomes increasingly difficult for the ten Booms to protect their Jewish friends, members of the Dutch resistance help build a secret room, “the hiding place.”

Corrie ten Boom and her family were arrested in 1944. And although the Jews the ten Booms hid from the Nazis were never discovered, she was imprisoned for months, including time in Ravensbrück, a German concentration camp for women. After her release in late December 1944, she returned to Holland, where she gave shelter to the mentally disabled who feared execution by the Germans. She died in 1983.

The Boone County production of “The Hiding Place” is directed by Gary Tate. It is the final show of the 2017-18 season. Following is the full performance schedule. Friday, May 11 and 18, 7 p.m.; Saturday, May 12 and 19, 7 p.m.; and Sunday, May 13 and 20, 2 p.m. Tickets are $12 for adults and $5 for students with ID.

Other 2017-18 Productions

“The Happy Elf”
Written by Harry Connick Jr., the story follows the story of an North Pole elf who tries to help an entire town of full of naughty children on Christmas Eve. The show ran last November.

“Don’t Drink the Water” 
A Woody Allen production that originally premiered in 1966 on Broadway, it tells the story of an American ambassador of a European county who temporarily places his son in charge and pandemonium breaks out. A zany series of events causes a national crisis that causes communist officials to believe an American family who accidentally took pictures in a secure area are spies.

Main Street Players of Boone County is a nonprofit community theater group founded in May 1994. Spokesmen say the theater’s goal is to provide quality amateur theater in all aspects to the residents of Boone County and surrounding areas.

Group tickets for “The Hiding Place” are available by calling 800-741-2963. More information about the theater is at mainstreetplayersofboonecounty.com, or the group’s Facebook page, facebook.com/mspbc. R.