Hickory – Guest Director Thom Hutchens has just announced the cast for the Hickory Community Theatre’s next production by its Encore Players seniors’ theatre troupe. It is the sidesplitting comedy, with a very long title, The Farndale Avenue Housing Estate Townswomen’s Guild Dramatic Society Murder Mystery. Performances begin on Friday, July 12 in the Firemen’s Kitchen and continue through Sunday, July 28. Tickets are available by phone at 828-328-2283 or online at hickorytheatre.org.
Featured in the cast are Diane Albers, Darda Dibble, James Grose, Jill Grose and Andrea Long. Each plays multiple roles as members of the theatre company in the play, and as characters in the play within the play.
The play is about the misadventures of a British amateur drama group, The Farndale Avenue Housing Estate Townswomen’s Guild Dramatic Society (or F.A.H.E.T.G.D.S. for short.) Every drama group has experienced the horrors of what can go wrong on opening night, and the ladies of the F.A.H.E.T.G. Dramatic Society are no different, with the possible exception that almost everything that could happen does! The scenery collapses, cues are missed, lines forgotten, and the sound effects take on a strange note at times, as the ladies present their ambitious evening’s entertainment with the cunning whodunit, Murder at Checkmate Manor. The crunch comes in the denouement when the “murderer”, about to be revealed, has to rush home to bandage up an injured daughter. Nevertheless, Mrs. Reece, doyenne of the group, rises above the slings and arrows of outrageous dramatics to save the situation and provide the final inventive twist.
PHOTO: (L-R) Jill Grose, Diane Albers, James Grose, Andrea Long and Darda Dibble are the cast of The Farndale Avenue Housing Estate Townswomen’s Guild Dramatic Society Murder Mystery.
Photo by Carol Anne Hartman.
