Real-life husband and wife star in MLT’s ‘Plaza Suite’

The real-life husband-and-wife team of Gary and Stanis Ames will portray three different couples

— Sam and Karen Nash, Jesse Kiplinger and Muriel Tate, and Roy and Norma Hubley — as the Marblehead Little Theatre presents Neil Simon’s “Plaza Suite.”

The show, produced by Emily Black and directed by Steve Black with associate director Katie Meuse, will run from March 24 through April 2 at Marblehead Little Theatre, 12 School St. Tickets are available at mltlive.org.

“Plaza Suite” features three couples who occupy a suite at the Plaza Hotel in New York City.

The play takes a humorous and insightful look at relationships as Sam and Karen try to rekindle the romance in their marriage, Jesse and Muriel grapple with teenage love, and Roy and Norma navigate their marital problems while urging their daughter to go through with her wedding.

Set in 1968, the play’s themes reflect the different forms of love, romance and marriage.

The cast also features Julia Arey, who plays Jean McCormack and Mimsey Hubley; Jacob DeFillipo, who will portray Bellhop and Borden Eisler; and Mark Rolli, who will play the Waiter.

A whispered “Good-night” ’ere they sleep?

Do they miss me at home, do they miss me, At morning, at noon and at night?

And lingers one gloomy shade round them

That only my presence can light?

Are joys less invitingly welcomed, And pleasures less dear than before,

Because one is missed from the circle,

Because I am with them no more?

Oh, yes — they do miss me! Kind voices

Are calling me back as I roam, And eyes have grown weary with weeping, And watch but to welcome me home! Sweet friends, ye shall wait me no longer, No longer I’ll linger behind; For how can I tarry, while followed By watchings and pleadings so kind?

In her poem “For the Poor,” she writes about a child’s fear of losing their father to the sea.

“For the Poor”

“We cannot sleep,” said they, “Father is out on the stormy bay, And the night is dark and the sea is deep;

Would God that it were day!”

What more the little children said, I cannot say, For I stopped my ears and whirled away

To pray in this instead:

For a little space, A little slackening in the race, Returning with the morning’s ray

Back from the Stormy Bay.

She also wrote about the loss of her sister to illness in a poem entitled “A Sister’s Grave.”

“A Sister’s Grave”

“She sleeps beneath a glorious sky, The blue dome of the palmy east;

Above her troops of stars go by,

And when their wondrous dance has ceased,

The first, warm kisses of the sun

Fall gently on our sleeping one.

Afar from noise, remote from strife, She lies who was our love and pride;

Meek, gentle, quiet in her life, Like peace in death is not denied; And her last sleep is undisturbed; By tumult from the noisy herd.” She made significant contributions to the hymnology of the Unitarian church, and her poetry generally exhibits a strong didactic element. Caroline Briggs and her family left Marblehead for Fitchburg in the 1850s. It was in Fitchburg where Caroline met and later married Charles Mason. She died in 1890 and is buried in Laurel Hill Cemetery in Fitchburg.

ShINING ON NaTIONa L STaGE