Sunday, October 22, 2006

Back from Chicago

Karen, the girls, and I went to see the Possum Point Players production of Chicago last night. It was great.

The Players are a big part of our history. On our first date, Karen and I went to a Possums show. Before kids, we were involved in many of their productions. Since kids, we've done a few, but with the girls' growing schedules, we have not been able to be as involved lately. We're still annual contributors, though, and we try to get to shows when we can.

Thematically, Chicago is a bit mature for Christina, but the choreographer for the show is a dance teacher of both of the girls, and there were cast members they both know, so we decided to just go see the show.

The Possum Point Players are a great resource for high school students in Sussex County interested in theater. This production included two kids who go to Sussex Tech with Colleen, and two others who were students at the Southern Delaware School of the Arts, including one with whom Christina did a school play a few years ago.

One of the leads was our old friend Donna DeKuyper, a Lewes neighbor. Donna and I worked together in the Possums' Big River years ago and performed Love Letters together as well. The other female lead was Becky Gaffney, second wife of a former co-worker, though I have never met her. Both ladies are strong singers and did a great job as did Lorraine Steinhoff, of Dover, as Mama.

Another old friend, John Hulse, played Amos. John has a wonderful tenor and has developed an acting talent that serves him well. It was also interesting to see Destiny Kerstetter, manager at the Schwartz Center in Dover, perform as a member of the chorus. She was the topic of a cute story in yesterday's News Journal about her having been proposed to on-stage at the Schwartz Center Thursday night.

This was a wonderful production of Chicago. I think that's a tough show for community theatre to do well, and the Possums did it very well. They pulled no punches. The cast were up to the acting challenge and the singing challenge. It was great.

And I enjoyed the traditional cellphone overture before the show. As the lights dimmed, an announcer asked that there be no flash photography and that patrons power-down their phones. What followed was an Ivesian symphony of cellphone turn-off music warbling from all points in the theatre.

1 comment:

jason said...

Thanks for the review. You'll have to give a heads-up for future productions. My wife and I are not among those who think Delaware is too big to drive across for a show.

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