ATP Spotlight Feature - Colin Bohash

     

Colin Bohash can easily identify the point where he was pulled into the gravitational field of Old Town Playhouse.  “My wife, Margaret Anne, our two sons and I attended a 2014 performance of Leaving Iowa at OTP’s Depot Studio Theatre,” he remembers.  

The play is centered on a family which is seeking the best place in their home state, to scatter the ashes of the protagonist’s wife. They ultimately choose a spot at the geographic center of Iowa. The show inspired the Bohash’s to make a 2015 visit to the geographic center for the 48 contiguous states—a spot located in Kansas.

Sadly, less than a year later, Bohash found himself in similar circumstances to the family in Leaving Iowa.  Margaret Anne succumbed to a terminal illness and two days later, “we delivered a portion of her ashes to the geographic center of Iowa near Lebanon.”

In the Fall of 2016, Bohash learned that the Ramsdell Theatre in Manistee was auditioning for its own production of Leaving Iowa and he soon found himself joining the cast. “This was my first acting experience, Bohash reports, and it led to yet another role at the Ramsdell in Almost Maine.  
Next, he was onto staged readings with the Glen Arbor players starting in 2017. This, in turn, brought an invitation to be cast in a ‘run-out’ presentation by OTP’s Aged To Perfection senior readers theatre. Thus began a long tenure with ATP and OTP which extends to this April’s production of New York Stories. He has also participated in set construction for many MainStage shows and frequently volunteers as an usher.  In the Spring of 2024, he was a part of the MainStage cast for Radium Girls which he calls “a priceless experience.”

From “… my very first play … when I constructed frames for flats, stretched canvas to fit them, and helped paint them … I quickly became aware of a team spirit from everyone involved,” says Bohash. “Everyone was supportive in every aspect … and it began to feel like all of us in the company were like family.” This was true of his early days at the Ramsdell Theatre and has carried forward throughout his involvement at OTP.  

“I’ve thoroughly enjoyed meeting those working as volunteers and giving fully of themselves in multi-talented ways at each production that comes to the stage,” Bohash concludes adding, “I wish I had started sooner.”