Willard Martin wrote a dictionary with definitions based on consonants.

“Linguistic experts say consonants have no meaning,” Martin says in this week’s podcast.

Nevertheless, he proceeded to help language make sense to kids with learning disabilities.

For example, he said, “G” means “go” and “T” means “hold,” which is obvious in words like “get” or “take.” For “goat,” Martin said, think of a goat going up the side of a mountain and holding on.

He described his dictionary as “the ultimate mnemonic device.”

Committed to his career as a learning-disabilities specialist, Martin is equally passionate about theater, which hooked him in college.

“One does help the other a lot,” he said.

Martin is deeply rooted in the village of Esperance where he and generations of his family grew up. For the village’s bicentennial in 2018, the Esperance Historical Society put on a play. The play was based on a 1930s script that a society member had found amid her mother’s things after she died.

The actors named themselves the Hysterical Players and changed the names in the 1930s script to the original Esperance actors who had performed the romantic comedy eight decades before.The performance was in the Old Stone church in the village, built in 1824, which has the same marvelous acoustics as Union College’s Memorial Hall, designed by the same architect, Martin said.

“The acoustics are so good, you can hear a stage wiper on the steps to the balcony,” he said.

Next door is the two-room schoolhouse that Martin attended as a boy.

Finding a cast among the townspeople was difficult — Martin didn’t get to choose among candidates at an audition. A man in his eighties played a character in his twenties — reversing his youthful portrayal of an old man.

A mother was convinced to join the cast after Martin wrote a role for her daughter into the script. He named the character for his own mother — Thelma, “a good old-fashioned name” — who was the same age as the girl, 9 years old, when the play was first performed in Esperance.

The church hall was packed when the Hysterical Players put on their bicentennial show. Martin described it as “people from all walks of life coming together and laughing — not thinking about politics — having a good time.”

“One of the most special moments in my life” is how he described it.

Following the performance, someone joked that the Hysterical Players should do another show. Martin said he didn’t know how to take a joke and the players started work on their next production.

The pandemic interfered but the group is carrying on — and is currently looking for a leading man and an accompanist. The play is set in an Adirondack Lodge — the group has “Esperancized” the script to suit itself, Martin said.

The rustic set is behind the altar and, with a baptism schedule for May, the baby’s parents said they were fine with the stage set being there.

“We have to work around problems,” said Martin.

— Melissa Hale-Spencer