The Holland Theatre has played an important role in the lives of Silas Augsburger and Maggie Wilcoxon, and last weekend, the stage where the pair met years earlier also provided a special setting for a surprise engagement proposal.
On the proposal day, Augsburger had arranged for theater staff to be outside offering tours of the 127 E. Columbus Ave. facility when the couple walked by, so the bride-to-be would not suspect that the visit was anything more than a serendipitous look around their old stomping ground.
The Holland Theatre staff went all-out to help make the proposal memorable, playing music Augsburger had chosen and providing appropriate stage lighting.
The newly engaged couple first met when Wilcoxon was in the cast and Augsburger was assisting backstage for a Windmill Productions junior musical at the theater.
“It all kind of started at the theater, so it felt appropriate to go back there,” explained Augsburger.
Now a law student at the University of Dayton, Augsburger had also participated in Center Stage Productions, a homeschool theater company based at that time at the Holland.
He and his fiancée, a nursing student at Edison State Community College, reconnected at a church conference last fall as adults.
They will both graduate this spring and are planning a spring or summer wedding.