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The Grasse River Players are shown here in a recent rehearsal. From left, Esther Katz, Karen wells, Jeannie Blake, Morgan Hastings, Barbara Burdick and Mary Egan.

CANTON -- The Grasse River Players recently marked their 40th anniversary and are hosting a guest speaker at their next meeting.

They will convene on June 8 in the Unitarian Universalist Church at 7 p.m.

Guest speaker is filmmaker, screenwriter and Clarkson film professor Brian Hauser.

The public is welcome.

The group recently marked four decades.

They were founded in 1974 by then-SUNY Potsdam professor Sylvia Angus. Carole Berard, Dorothy Mallam and Wanda Renick are original members who remain today.

They have performed in a plethora of places and events throughout St. Lawrence County in their four decades. They include parks, the Dairy Princess parade, museums, opera houses, libraries, senior center, restaurants, the Canton Winterfest and schools. For Canton's bi-centennial, they created a multi-media theater event titled "Forever Cows," which showed at SUNY Canton's theater.

They performed a show titled "Melodrama Weekened" regularly at the Edwards Opera House.

They partner with other community groups and often produce murder mystery dinner theater events as fundraising vehicles for charity.

The players are joined with the Colton Historical Society and Colton-Pierrepont Central School to form the Sunday Rock Legacy.

This year’s theme is “Abracadabra - Schoolhouse Magic,” which celebrates the one-room schoolhouses of yesteryear.

Shown here are some of the Grasse River Players reading Shakespeare. From left, Denny Brandt, Esther Katz, Libby Brandt, Jennifer Freego, Emily Owen and Morgan Hastings.