Perry Players take the audience back in time

jclark@sunmulti.com

Amid the “boos,” “hisses,” “hoorays” and “awws,” the cast of

“The Picture That Was Turned To The Wall or She May Have Seen Better Days”

takes the audience for a melodramatic ride.

Director Carol Strandburg said the audience gets a chance to

“interact with the cast but they are not put on the spot” by cheering for the

hero and booing the villain.

She explained that in the small town of Turkey Neck, a

mother and father, played by Dianne Scruggs and Todd Wilson, who run a hotel

find out their daughter Jubilee, played by Heather Coy, has married an actor

Smiling Billy Tapshoes, played by Ben Smith. The father is so distraught by the

news that his disowns his daughter and turns her picture to the wall.  

One year later, the villain, Rudolph von Doberman, played by

Stuart Appleton, along with his cronies, Diamond Tooth Polly, played by Bari

Norden, and Rags, played by Bill Johansen, tries to take over the hotel in order

to turn it into a saloon. It is up to Fred the Stable Boy, played by Hunter

Hufnagel, to save the day.

“There is a story, but it is about the jokes,” said the

director.

Strandburg said that the melodrama is an “education part of

the American Theatre history.” The Perry Players have kept the play’s set and

costuming in the period the play was written, which is the late 1800s.

Strandburg explained that the play was different than a

normal comedy, and the audience can expect a lot of family-friendly corny jokes

and to “feel like you’re there.”

The dates of the play are March 2, 6, 7, 8, 9 at 7:30 and

March 3 and 10 at 2:30. Tickets are $15 for regular admission, $12 for seniors

or military, $10 for students and children, groups of 10 or more are $10 each, Sunday’s

show is $10 and Wednesday’s show is buy one get one free.

The sponsor of the show is Mark A. Strandburg DMD.

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