NORWAY — The Save the Norway Opera House Committee will present “A Night for the Opera House” at 7 p.m. Friday, July 16, at Norway Memorial Library, with author Myra McLarey reading from her novel “The Road to Eden’s Ridge.”

Music and scenes will also be presented by author Sally Jones of Norway and composer Steve Jones of Harrison, who are collaborating to adapt the novel into a musical for the stage. Featured in that performance will be Alison Whitney, Griffin Jones, Jeremy Hill, Tom Littlefield, Carol Brown and other singers and musicians from the area who often perform with the Oxford Hill Music and Performing Arts Association.

McLarey’s novel is set in a fictional town that is a thinly disguised Norway, Maine. One important aspect of the story focuses on rescuing and restoring the town’s historical opera house.

McLarey, who formerly lived in Norway and taught at Oxford Hills High School for 16 years, co-authored “The Road to Eden’s Ridge” with Linda Weeks in 2002. After teaching for 10 years at Harvard, McLarey moved to Nashville to chair and design the English program for a new high school where she now teaches. She is also an associate professor of Vanderbilt’s Owen School of Finance, where she leads workshops on using writing in the workplace.

McLarey’s third novel, “The Last Will and Testament of Rosetta Sugars Tramble” is scheduled for release at the end of the year. The movie version of “The Road to Eden’s Ridge” is under film contract with a Hollywood producer.

Writing to be heard is a craft Steve Jones pursued for many years as a radio reporter in the Detroit market. In the past 20 years, he has delivered the lines (of others) in more than 70 stage shows and four films in southern Maine. His day job is managing real estate.

Sally Jones performs in western Maine theaters and directs shows for OHMPAA. She has taught theater to high-school students, most recently at Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School. She also sings with Act V, a trio that performs rock and pop music from the 1950s to the ’70s. She recently performed a one-woman show, “Mrs. Smith Goes to Washington,” an original script by Linda Britt of the Out of the Box Theatre in Lewiston. The play about the remarkable life of U.S. Sen. Margaret Chase Smith will be performed Sept. 17-20 at the Celebration Barn Theatre in South Paris.

Friday’s reading will highlight the challenges and changes involved when a piece of literature is adapted from a book to the musical stage. Following the program, McLarey will sign copies of “The Road to Eden’s Ridge.” Proceeds from book sales and donations will go to the Save the Norway Opera House Committee.

“This event is the first fundraiser we’ve held to support the effort to Save the Norway Opera House,” said Lisa Moore, coordinator of Save the Norway Opera House, a project of the Norway Opera House Corp.