The Kamsack Players theatre group is working on a comedy for its annual dinner theatre which promises a violent collision between everything Christmas and everything Shakespeare so that the audience will never think of Shakespeare or Christmas in quite the same way again.
The Players are staging Scrooge MacBeth by David MacGregor at the OCC Hall on December 2 and 3.
Scrooge MacBeth takes the meaning of “the show must go on” to a whole new level, says the play’s synopsis. Bob, Sylvia, Victor and Renee are the last four actors standing when a food poisoning outbreak sidelines most of the cast on the opening night of the Hartland Community Theatre’s holiday production, Shakespeare’s classic, The Winter’s Tale.
But that’s not the only setback: Sylvia has just discovered a boatload of red ink in the theatre group’s ledger, the synopsis says. “With impending financial ruin, a shortage of cast members and an expectant audience just outside the doors, can these four amateur thespians concoct some kind of holiday entertainment in time to save their theatre?
Nancy Brunt is directing the play which has a cast of five: Bob, the co-executive director of the community theatre and a plumber, is portrayed by James Perry; Sylvia, who is married to Bob and is the other co-executive director of the theatre company as well as being an intellectual property attorney, is portrayed by Ellen Amundsen-Case; Victor, a co-artistic director of the company and an English professor, is being played by Kevin Sprong; Renee, the other co-artistic director of the company, Victor’s wife and a Kindergarten teacher, is portrayed by Zennovia Duch, and the stage manager, an elderly woman of difficult temperament who apparently came with the building, is played by Odaria Moline.
Scrooge MacBeth marks Sprong’s first appearance on stage with the Kamsack Players, while it is the second time that Amundsen-Case has taken on an acting role. This play is the third major Kamsack Players’ production that Brunt has directed and she has acted in several.
Perry has appeared in a number of the company’s productions and Duch is renowned for the many roles she has portrayed in the Players’ past productions. Moline has been involved with the Players over the past several years in many capacities, including assistant director, house manager and actor.
Asked what special challenges she and the cast must meet with this production, Brunt said “the music.”
“We have three singers and one non-singer in the cast,” she said, explaining that Amundsen-Case, Duch and Perry “sing a lot of songs in the production and they do it so well.”
It will be worth the price of admission just to hear how good their voices are, she said.
Many of the songs are familiar Christmas carols, she said, adding that this is one of the reasons why the play fits the dinner theatre setting and the Christmas season so well.
The play’s time is modern day and it is set on the stage and backstage of the amateur company’s theatre, where members are desperate to put on a production in spite of several obstacles, she said.
The Notched Branch is catering the meal which will include short ribs with sides, she said. The cast and crew will be serving the meal which will begin with the appetizer prior to the beginning of the show. At intermission the main course and the dessert will be served.
Each night a 50/50 lottery draw will be made.
Seating will be prepared for 120 persons. Tickets are being sold at Pheobe’s Beauty Parlor until November 28 and none will be sold after that date because the caterer must know how many meals to prepare. No tickets will be sold at the door.
hen the Players re-stageDad’s Piano in competition.
And we’re all looking forward to Scrooge Macbeth, a comedy with “singing” actors that the Players will be staging as a dinner theatre at the OCC Hall December 2 and 3.
