Love is never lost in Next Act Theatre's new show, "The Voice of the Prairie." The story revolves around one man, David Quinn, whose childhood adventures with a blind girl named Frankie (Mary MacDonald Kerr) become an instant success on the airwaves.

John Olive's story, which takes place in America in 1923 and features flashbacks to 1895, follows the older Quinn (played by David Cecsarini in Sunday's production, in the place of Brian Robert Mani) as he gets roped into the radio craze by slick con man Leon Schwab (Matt Tallman) who thinks he's found "the voice of the prairie" in Quinn. He tells stories of his travels with his father, meeting Frankie the night his father died and his adventures with the blind girl after her mother also dies. His stories capture the hearts of everyone in his audience, and he and Schwab sell large quantities of radios.

However, Quinn's rise to stardom in the brand-new radio world is not the essence of the story. Cecsarini brings the quiet and simple Quinn to life and captures hardship and truth as he reminisces about his past. Through each story and each new level of stardom, Quinn becomes stronger, more comfortable and more ambitious. There are moments of vulnerability within and outside of his stories that show the audience how much Frankie meant to him.

Tallman also plays the younger Davey, whose "girlish giggle" and protective innocence battles Frankie's wild and exuberant sense of adventure. Though neither knows where they're going or what will happen to them next, they follow the belief that "as long as we stay together, they will be blind and we will be invisible." Eventually, their adventures end in hunger and they are separated.

Years later, Frankie, now Frances Reed, hears of Quinn's radio broadcasts and they are reunited through Schwab's crafty and somewhat self-serving search. Reed and Quinn's reunion is bittersweet, but in the end they accept the past and embrace the future, and together with Schwab set off for New York City and the National Broadcasting Company.

The three-person cast authentically, realistically and beautifully portrays several characters, and uses the stage for a variety of sets. A boxcar becomes a radio station that in turn becomes a hotel room, all through lighting and the use of different props in the stage's four corners. A sliding wooden board creates a wall, barn door and jail cell, and there are various radios, chairs and microphones to illustrate the flow of time and the change in scenery.

The intimate setting of Next Act's Off-Broadway Theatre provides a unique and powerful glimpse into the quiet and laidback Midwestern way of life, when times were simple, and the radio provided the imagination with lots of room to grow. "The Voice of the Prairie" provides audience members with the same potential for imagination, and brings love and friendship into the hearts of every era.

"The Voice of the Prairie" runs through Dec. 19 at the Off-Broadway Theatre, 342 N. Broadway. More information is available by calling 278-0765 or at www.nextact.com.

Grade: A