by dick kerekes dickkerekes@yahoo.com
Orange Park Community Theatre opened its fourth show of the season and the last one before their annual summer musical in June, which this year is Brigadoon. Play On will run through March 29th at 2900 Moody Road, in Orange Park.
The current comedy is a must see for anyone who has ever been involved in amateur theatre productions. Whether actor or backstage techie this show will peak your interest. The plot concerns a community theatre that is rehearsing for the opening of “Murder Most Foul”. In the opening act, everything that could possibly go wrong just four days before dress rehearsal goes wrong! Actors don’t know their lines, they are late for entrances, and the sound effects do not work. The list goes on and on.
In Act II, the day of the dress rehearsal, the actors are in their costumes, but some still don’t know their lines or cues for entering. The local author of the play, Mrs. Montague has been constantly coming in with new scenes she is adding right up to the last minute and played with gusto by Megan Padgett. Gerry the frustrated director of the show is played by Susan Pope who whirls around the stage trying to inspire her actors, put up with incompetent assistants and at the same time control the hyperactive playwright.
There are three acts but they are short and the entire play with intermissions is just over two hours. In Act III, the production of “Murder Most Foul” finally goes on, well sort of. The action is hilarious, fast paced and everything that could conceivably go wrong does. The OP audience laughed long and loud and left the theater smiling.
The success of a farce like “Play On” relies on two important ingredients besides a well written script. The direction has to be crisp and definite and this show is in the good hands of John Pope. Mr. Pope has directed in community and professional theatres up and down the east coast. He has also established himself as one of the premier actors in the North Florida area in just a few short years since moving here.
The show is well cast, with all the actors giving strong portrayals of their very individual characters and displaying the extraordinary timing required by lines that bounce around the stage like a ping pong balls. Sara Green as Aggie, the stage manager, is a director’s nightmare as she is never where she is suppose to be, but is otherwise is so likeable how can you be mad at her?
Korina Barber is Louise, the technical director, carpenter and coffee maker, who misses sound cues, and says what she wants when she feels like it, even during the show.
The plot of the play within the play has all the actors in London using English accents in their dual roles T.J. Howard is Billy/Stephen who has a backstage and an on stage romance with Carla Lahey as Violet/Diana. (Back stage romances between actors occur often in theatre.I can name several married couples who met that way.) Annabelle Howard as Polly/Lady Margaret wears a wonderful jet black gown, and as some very funny moments with her husband Michael Smithgall (Henry/Lord Dudley). Smithgall, one of the area’s best comic actors, plays the aristocrat role looking and acting like Richard Nixon with an accent.
Kristen Walsh is cute as a button and performs well as Maria/Doris the maid. Ms. Walsh is a Ridgeview High senior. This is the third show I have seen her in at OPTC and she has developed into a fine young actress. Steve McMahon, who I saw in his very first play as an actor in Jacksonville plays a great drunk as Dr. Rex Forbes, the dastardly sharp tongued villain who sets up the interesting finale.
The set design by Director Pope and the cast is deceptively simple at the start (like a rehearsal space), but gets more elaborate. In Act lll when paintings and items are added to make an elegant English home. Sue Pope, Sherry Walsh and the cast were responsible for the costumes and I just loved the all black formal wear in the London scenes.
There is an interesting story about the playwright, Rick Abbot, a pen name for playwright Jack Sharkey. He began writing plays in l965 and had 82 plays published before his death in l992. None of his plays made it to Broadway because he mostly wrote fluffy comedies with odd titles like “Cinderella meets Wolfman” and “Jekyll Hydes Again”. He did make a good living from royalties from schools and community theatres and we certainly enjoyed Play On.
Kudos to the OPTC Repertory members who read dozens of plays, some from pretty obscure playwrights, to find real gems to give this theater’s audiences a very well rounded and interesting schedule of plays each season. They do a great job each year after year.
Theatre folks will absolutely love this play, bad makeup and all. For many it will be a mini education about the play production process though slightly skewed.
Call 276-2599 for reservations. Evening performances are at 8PM, Sunday matinees at 3PM. Regular prices are a bargain at $l5.00, with a $l3.00 ticket for seniors, students and military. They have a great website at www.opct.org. Don’t miss Play On, one of the funniest plays of the year.
Article Published in the March 2008 Issue of EU Jacksonville
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