Perry Players to put on ‘Ragtime’ musical this week

Perry Players’ Community Theatre is set to deliver their second performance of the theatre’s 2018-2019 season with “Ragtime: The Musical.”

“We do seven shows a year at Perry Players. Ragtime is our annual summer musical and it’s our biggest show of the year,” said the Perry Players’ Director, Hunter Hufnagel. “We have over 50 people in the cast and we have some of the best talent in Middle Georgia in this show I believe. We are extremely excited to put it on this year.”

Based on the 1975 book written by E.L. Doctorow, ‘Ragtime’ tells the story of three groups in the United States in the early 20th-century. During the 20th century, African-Americans were represented by Coalhouse Walker, Jr., a Harlem musician, upper class suburbanites were represented by Mother, the matriarch of a white upper-class family in New Rochelle, New York, and Eastern European immigrants were represented by Tateh, a Jewish immigrant from Latvia.

Historical figures throughout the play include people like Harry Houdini, Booker T. Washington, J.P. Morgan, Henry Ford, Stanford White, Evelyn Nesbit, Emma Goldman, and others.

Hufnagel said the majority of the actors in the volunteer organization are from the Houston County/Middle Georgia area and include a mixture of students, working parents, and adults.

“It was my idea to choose Ragtime,” explained Hufnagel. “I have done the show before. The first show that I ever directed was at Houston County High School in my sophomore year and Ragtime was the show I directed, so I actually gained a fascination with the piece in high school when I directed it. I thought it would be great to be able to do that in the Middle Georgia area with Perry’s Players this year.”

The show will run from July 12-28. On July 12, 13, 14, 19, 20, 21, 26, 27, & 28, the show will be at 7:30 p.m. On July 15 & 22, the show will be at 2:30 p.m. Ticket prices for adults are $20. For seniors (60 years-old and up) and students with IDs, tickets will be $18.

Hufnagel then dove into why he thinks the audiences will respond positively to the musical. “Well, it’s a historical snapshot into the turn-of-the-century United States in the early 1900’s and it features so much history of our country that’s so very prominent today with our immigration, social and political history, the things we see all the time in the news, differences between races and all that kind of stuff. It’s a very powerful story and it has beautiful music and it’s very captivating with the costumes, the music, and set. When people walk into the theater for the first time, I think they will be very captivated by what they see in the play.”

For more information on “Ragtime: The Musical,” or the upcoming season, visit www.perryplayers.org or call the box office at (478)-987-5354.