News Photo by Darby Hinkley Karl W. Heidemann stars in the one-man play, “Under the Lintel,” opening Friday at the Rogers Theater in Rogers City.

ROGERS CITY — Rogers City Community Theatre will present the one-man show, “Underneath the Lintel,” by Glen Berger, opening at 7:30 p.m. on Friday at the Rogers Theater, 257 N. Third St., Rogers City.

The play runs for two weekends, Friday through Sunday, with evening performances at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday matinees at 2 p.m.

Tickets are $15.45 for adults and $7.05 for students if paying with credit card and are available in advance at rcct.ludus.com or at the box office starting one hour prior to showtime. Cash price at the door is $14 for adults and $6 for students.

“In this gripping story, an eccentric librarian, played by Karl W. Heidemann, discovers a weather-beaten book in a return bin — 123 years overdue,” a press release from RCCT explains. “Sparked into action, he embarks on a sometimes emotional quest that takes him around the world and 2,000 years into the past. While experiencing memories of love and loss, sometimes humorous and sometimes existential, with astonishing twists and turns, ‘Underneath the Lintel’ draws us into an unforgettable odyssey.”

The librarian is intrigued by the very overdue book, and his curiosity gets the best of him in seeking clues to who may have checked out the book, and how it made its way back to the return bin so many years later.

The discovery leads him to consider his own routine, predictable life, and adjust accordingly as he seeks information, near and far, to help unravel this mystery. It also leads him to ponder the meaning of life and why we are placed on Earth in the first place.

“Underneath the Lintel” is directed by Heidemann’s daughter, Heather Heidemann Nordenbrock. She and her father have worked together on many plays presented by Rogers City Community Theatre.

“We have directed each other for many years, so we have a pretty good working relationship now,” Nordenbrock said. “We’re pretty like-minded about how things should look … I enjoy directing my father a lot. He’s very talented, so it makes it easy.”

She is excited to present this unique play to the community.

“There’s some humor in it, and there’s some emotion in it, and just all those things that make theater great,” Nordenbrock said of the play. “It does delve into some emotional areas. My dad is a wonderful comedic actor, but we don’t always get to see that dramatic side.”

Heidemann said that when he first read the script, he knew he had to do it.

“I love this play,” Heidemann said. “When I saw this, I said, ‘I’ve got to do that play.’ It has a lot of meaning to me in the search for ‘What is the meaning of life?’ So, that’s something we can share.”

The play is very thought-provoking.

“It’s, kind of, a convoluted tale, yes, we know, but it takes you on a journey, a thought journey,” Heidemann said.

He said he’s been working on his lines for several months, and that he has to use some visual clues for prompts since there are no other actors on stage with him.

“It takes a while,” Heidemann said. “You have to work at it. Obviously, it takes work to learn the lines … The roadmap has to be in the brain, and that just comes from repetition and repetition, and loving the material.”

Heidemann estimates that he has acted in about 120 plays in his career, both in Rogers City and Cheboygan.

“What really interests me about this is the journey of this ‘keeps to himself’ librarian,” Heidemann added. “Every day is the same … but then something happens that causes him to reconsider, and it just snowballs. Where do I fit in the universe? What is this?”