When the curtain comes up on the La Porte Service League’s 79th production, "I Wish", on Jan. 27 at 1 p.m., the audience will be entertained by the words of La Porte’s Kathy Sommer. An avid gardener, long-time local optometrist and newfound playwright Sommer is a modern-day renaissance woman.
Her journey began in Princeton, Ind., where Sommer attended Princeton Community High School before earning a biology bachelor’s degree and doctorate in optometry from Indiana University Bloomington.
“I had wanted to go into the medical field, and I had worn contacts since I was a teenager so I was interested in optometry,” Sommer said. “Also, it has physics and biology and lastly, it is a people thing, and I like to talk to people very much.”
Sommer started working for Ophthalmology Incorporated in 1993, and instantly enjoyed interacting with others and building relationships. Following her marriage and tired of the commute from Crown Point, Sommer officially settled down in La Porte. The lakes, warm summers, and abundance of activities the city has to offer are among her paramount reasons for enjoying La Porte.
Sommer waited to raise her kids before joining the local Service in 1996. She had worked with them previously at elementary vision screenings. Her reason for joining was to get further involved in the community, which is easy to do considering all the volunteer work the League does.
When asked to describe the group’s activities Sommer easily rattles off the following: “Every other month we play bingo with the La Porte County Home residents. In the fall we participate in the Sunflower Festival. We tutor in the schools and vision screening in the fall. Next month we will actually start to teach preschoolers about dental care. January is when we do our play. Every February we have a trivia night to raise money for the scholarships we give out. We also help take care of the Women’s Care Center and help with Salvation Army bell ringing. We help usher at community concerts.”
Ironically, when she first joined, Sommer did not know about the annual play that she would end up being such a key part of. After years of working behind the scenes and on lights, Sommer began to take notice of the primary audience.
“After watching for so long, I could tell what the kids like and what they didn’t," she said. "You can tell they want something to relate to.”
Sommer’s solution was simple; she would write a play herself. Her first play, “Why Do I Have to do my Homework?” was a success and this year’s play “I Wish” is sure to be a hit as well.
Her inspiration is from her own personal experiences having kids and information her patients share with her about having kids. “I Wish” is the tale of a Fairy God Mother that takes a vacation. Her replacement is a frog that is addicted to video games, a highly relatable situation. The distracted frog manages to only halfway answer wishes teaching the kids an important lesson: be happy with what you have.
The plays came together first in her head and then were typed out over a period of four weeks. Her future plans are bright; if all goes as planned, next year the Service League will be putting on its 80th production, a musical written by Kathy Sommer.