What do you get when a zany cast of community theater actors, who are just four days from opening night, collides with a dim-witted, but egotistical playwright who can’t stop revising the script for an original murder mystery?
The answer is Play On!, the side-splitting comedy that the Town Players of New Canaan will stage starting October 27 at the Powerhouse Performing Arts Center in Waveny Park.
Written by Rick Abbot, Play On!, has been called a love letter to community theater because it is a play-within-a play. The cast members switch back-and-forth between performing in Play On! and a faux show called Murder Most Foul.
“That’s biggest challenge with this show — making sure that the audience knows they are seeing the play and the rehearsal/offstage scenes as well as guiding my actors to distinguish between the two,” says director Kevin Pelkey. “Luckily I have a great cast that has embraced this challenge.”
Despite the fact that in Play On! everything that can go wrong does go wrong, the show’s producer, Sheila Toner, says that community theater is alive and well.
“There are more than 7,000 community theaters in the United States putting on more than 46,000 shows a year in front of 86 million people,” says Toner. “So, while this is a light-hearted show about amateur theater groups, Play On! shows that the people who keep community theater alive and well are as dedicated to their art as any professional.”
The cast features Holly Aladin, Caryn Raimondi, Lilliana DeRossi, Andrea Garmun, Mindy Fox Pritchard, Jen Woldman, Bob Flipowich, Steve DiRocco, Daniel P. Mann, and Marcia Cummings-Vinci.
So if you are up for an evening of light-hearted merriment, order tickets now by calling 203-594-3636 or visiting www.tpnc.org. Show dates are Friday and Saturday October 27, 28, November 3, 4, 10, and 11 at 8 p.m. and Sunday October 29 and November 5 at 2:30 p.m.
Play On! Photo Caption #4
Take a hilarious group of community theater actors, add a contemptuous playwright making too many script revisions – What do you get? Play On!, a side-splitting comedy with kooky antics and a zany cast of characters! (l-r) Daniel P. Mann, Holly Aladin, Caryn Raimondi, Jen Woldman (on ladder), Mindy Fox Pritchard, Andrea Garmun, Stephen DiRocco, Liliana DeRossi, Marcia Cummings-Vinci, Bob Flipowich.