{"id":48639,"date":"2025-08-05T11:40:55","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T15:40:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/?p=48639"},"modified":"2025-08-05T11:41:17","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T15:41:17","slug":"no-compromise-dinner-theater-kicks-off-crane-township-bicentennial-festivities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/no-compromise-dinner-theater-kicks-off-crane-township-bicentennial-festivities\/","title":{"rendered":"No Compromise! Dinner Theater Kicks Off Crane Township Bicentennial Festivities"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Crane Township Cecil Fire Department hosted the No Compromise! Dinner Theatre on Friday and Saturday nights, August 1st and 2nd as a kick off to Crane Township\u2019s Bicentennial month of celebrations.  This dinner theatre play was written by local historian, Jane Nice, and directed by Renee Boss of Paulding. Many Crane Township residents were involved in the planning and casting of this historical play about the Reservoir War that took place at the Six Mile Reservoir just southwest of the village of Cecil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s set the mood \u2014 it\u2019s spring of 1887, the mosquitoes are waking up, and there is a constant white noise of buzzing in the air. Settlers are wading through the mud from living in the Great Black Swamp. Amongst their struggles of day to day pioneering was the daily threat of disease and sickness caused by the overabundance of the minuscule nuisances. The \u201cague\u201d claimed many lives in those early days of Paulding County history. This is the stage of the weekend\u2019s Dinner Theater. The cast walked guests through the areas of Cecil, Antwerp, Tate\u2019s Landing, Junction, Defiance (Ptooey!), and Columbus during April of 1887. The historical tale is narrated by the illustrious duo, the Bargain Bin ladies \u2014 Rhonda Smalley and Eileen Kochensparger. They navigate the dinner guests through the days of how the locals at that time responded to the state\u2019s negligence at listening to the people to abandon and drain the Six Mile Reservoir. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Each scene began with a course of dinner prepared by local caterer, Above and Beyond (Robin Dobbelaere). There was a mystery to solve during the dinner theatre \u2014 who killed Private Reeves? This less-than-humble private from the National Guard of Ohio was the only casualty of the Reservoir War. If you weren\u2019t fortunate enough to attend, you\u2019ll have to talk to someone who was there! Local Paulding County residents of the time \u2013 the Applegates, Zubers, Sperrys, Lambs, and other families, showed guests how the dynamiters\u2019 acts of civil disobedience led to the demise of the reservoir and canal system on the night of April 25th, 1887. From the creative liberties of Private Reeves to the sermon of Rev. McCluskey and speech made by Gov. Foraker, the performance was enjoyed by all. Special guests made an appearance in this 4th production of No Compromise! \u2014 Johnny Appleseed \u2026 and Oliver Crane and family! Oliver Crane traveled to Paulding County from his home state of New York in search of the county named for his mentor, John Paulding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The weekend was a SOLD OUT event, bringing in funds for the Cecil Fire Department. During the dinner, interacters served guests their meal and gave them tidbits of historical information about their characters and the events \u2026 for a price! It was a fundraiser after all. Other items for sale for the guests were the \u201cCecil Cyclone\u201d replicated newspapers filled with newspaper articles from 1887 of the area as well as Crane Township\u2019s Bicentennial books, \u201cFrom the River\u2019s Edge: 200 Years in Crane Township\u201d created by Crane Township\u2019s Fiscal Officer, Carol Razo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The weekend was a memorable experience for not only the cast who made new friendships and connections, but for guests who supported Cecil Fire Department and learned a little more about the unique history of Paulding County Ohio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There can be NO COMPROMISE \u2026 the Reservoir MUST go \u2026 and it did!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Crane Township Cecil Fire Department hosted the No Compromise! Dinner Theatre on Friday and Saturday nights, August 1st and 2nd<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":48641,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,1395,1464],"tags":[26509,26505,16650,15341,26501,26503,10102,26510,15042,14895,26504,18080,26502,26506,11672,26508,26500],"class_list":["post-48639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-entertainment","category-history-community","tag-above-and-beyond","tag-anna-lamb","tag-carol-razo","tag-cecil-fire-department","tag-crane-township-bicenntennial","tag-emily-applegate","tag-jane-nice","tag-joe-soukup","tag-kevin-stuart","tag-kristine-stuart","tag-mary-zuber","tag-no-compromise-2","tag-oliver-appligate","tag-private-reeves","tag-renee-boss","tag-robin-dobbelaere","tag-the-reservoir-must-go"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Reservoir-War-Jr-Dynamiters.jpg?fit=666%2C607&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2YQd9-cEv","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-24 05:43:06","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48639"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48639\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48642,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48639\/revisions\/48642"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}