The team of Gus Kaikkonen and Keith Stevens will celebrate their 10th anniversary at the helm of the Peterborough Players this summer. “It seems impossible,” Kaikkonen said. “I still feel very new up here.”

In those 10 years, Kaikkonen as Artistic Director and Stevens as Managing Director, have overseen some key changes, and yet much remains the same at the barn playhouse founded in 1933. When they took over, Kaikkonen and Stevens were committed to maintaining the artistic integrity of the Players in the tradition of Sally Stearns Brown. Kaikkonen explained: “Our job is to do plays well, relate to the community and be an organic part of the Monadnock region.”

The Peterborough Players, the area’s only professional summer theatre, is a playhouse with a difference. “We’ve always had a commitment to a wider range of plays than the usual summer theater,” Stevens said.

“I try to choose a season that is wideranging and eclectic,” Kaikkonen said. “Some plays may not appeal to everyone. But, I ask myself, is this overall season a good meal?” Since 1996, the Players have staged plays ranging from David Mamet’s controversial Oleanna to the country musical Pump Boys and Dinettes, one of Kaikkonen’s favorites. The 2005 season continues the mix of classic and new, including the premiere of Kaikkonen’s new play Solidarity and the American classic Inherit the Wind, which will star James Whitmore, who has become an audience favorite in recent years. Also in the mix are the comedy, Grace & Glorie, Lettice and Lovage, a British comedy starring Mary Beth Hurt, the popular musical You’re A Good Man,Charlie Brown and A Number, the contemporary drama about cloning, hot from off-Broadway.

One big change in the past 10 years is the longer season. Stevens and Kaikkonen added a sixth play and now run two plays for three weeks instead of the usual two. “We would love to run as long as the weather stays good. We’re slowly creeping up to Thanksgiving,” Kaikkonen said, only half in jest.

Another major change was the creation of the Second Company which presents two shows for children and families during the summer. The company gives the hard-working interns and apprentices a chance to perform and also draws a new audience to the theater. Kids bring their parents, introducing them to the playhouse. “It’s been very successful,” Stevens said.

Kaikkonen and Stevens also started the High School Project, an intermittent collaboration between the professional company and local high school students. This year, students from Mascenic, Conant and ConVal High Schools performed Tina Howe’s MUSEUM.

For Stevens, the challenge was to make needed changes without busting the budget or destroying the special atmosphere of the summer playhouse. No one misses the hard folding chairs that have been replaced by comfortable theater seats. New bathrooms, a kitchen and office space have made life easier for playgoers and staff alike.

The company has purchased its own lighting and sound system and added a sprinkler system. These improvements to the physical plant have been made slowly and carefully. “We keep adding these little projects that I want to see happen, “ Stevens said.

The next “little project” is a complete renovation of the stage, a $1 million job that will start when the summer season ends. The plan is to tear down the stage from the proscenium back and build a new one complete with wings, fly space, trap doors and a scenery and costume shop. “This opens up a world of opportunities for us,” Stevens said. “It will allow us to do more complicated technical shows. It will also make things safer and more efficient.” Although three rows of seats will be added, the playhouse will still be an intimate 250 -seat theatre set in the woods.

Stevens notes happily that the Players are in healthy financial shape. “Keith is a really wonderful manager,” Kaikkonen said. “The theatre is safe in his hands.”

Looking back over 10 years, Kaikkonen says there are only a few shows he would have done differently. He refuses to name them, but cites last summer’s Glass Menagerie and 2000’s Our Town as two of his favorites. Actually, though, just about everything is Kaikkonen’s favorite. “I love the theater, and it’s a gift to share that love, to share the joy of that experience with as many people as possible,” he said. “That kind of communication is invaluable. It makes the world a better place. It really fills a human being up.”

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