Be sure to attend the Peninsula Players’ excellent production at Fort ColumbiaSearch newspapers from around the world and you will rarely find the words “community theater” used in the same sentence as “excellent,” “impressive” and “well worth your time.” But these are exactly the words to describe the Peninsula Players fantastic production of “Fiddler on the Roof” at Fort Columbia in Chinook.

Directed by Barbara Poulshock and produced by Laurie Carter, with musical direction by Barbara Bate and the original Broadway choreography reproduced by Cindy Flood, this excellent “Fiddler” is an impressive success that is well worth your time.

The Players and the Peninsula as a whole can take real pride in this genuinely moving and professionally polished play. It really would be completely at home in a much more populous place than ours.

Michael Campellone was pretty much born to play the famous role of Tevye, the dairyman, the harried father who copes with the entirely untraditional courtships and marriages of his beloved daughters in a time of social upheaval in their isolated Russian village. Flood is charming as Tevye’s wife Golde and deserves particular praise for her years of teaching dance, efforts richly rewarded by the performances of the young dancers who fill a variety of “Fiddler” roles.

The entire cast does a marvelous job. Spotting well-loved local friends and neighbors is one of this production’s pleasures. Who knew Dobby Wiegardt could sing and dance, or that Suzanne Leonard would make such a funny ghost?

Fort Columbia’s old theater adds a great deal to the Fiddler’s success, with good acoustics and a comfortable if slightly too-cozy setting. Built in 1905, the year the play is set, the theater is a tremendous under-used asset for our community. It’s amusing to think of what the U.S. Army soldiers stationed at the fort before World War I would think of our area’s modern-day citizens portraying Russian Jews in their old theater.

Aside from all the beautiful local young women, the brave soldiers of old would also doubtless have appreciated fiddler Jeffrey Reynolds’ lively and poignant work, which weaves the play together.

The Peninsula Players certainly deserve our strong support and applause. They’re doing wonderful work for nothing but the pleasure of live performance. In addition to attending their plays, we all can also give to their fundraising effort to renovate a Peninsula performance space. You can send donations to the Peninsula Players, P.O. Box 1214, Ocean Park, WA 98640. We hope they’ll also periodically revisit Fort Columbia.

Tickets to “Fiddler” are hard to come by, so it’s good additional performances have been added. Tickets are on sale for two encore presentations at 2 p.m., on March 22 and March 23. Tickets may be available at the Imperial Schooner in Ilwaco or by calling 642-8667. The play will run March 14, 15 and 16 also – but unless tickets are turned back in, those dates are sold out.