RV Travels With Huggy

We have been busy. I've posted photos before that were taken at productions put on by the RiverBelle Dinner Theater here in Mount Vernon. We have had reservations for over a month to attend the current production there, a murder comedy called, "Drop Dead!" and we did that last Friday night, along with neighbors, D & B. It was our fourth play to see there and their first. While all of them have been good, they do seem to be getting better and better. Needless to say, we all enjoyed this one very much and are looking forward to seeing many more there. It sure doesn't hurt that the theater is less than two miles from home.


Here is the cover of the program. It had a couple of actors that we have seen before in other productions here and the director played a major part in filling a couple of roles. Plus he is the real life husband of the actress who played the sister/daughter, Mona.


This photo shows the brother/son, the director, the new wife of the brother and the stage hand. The play has two acts with a short intermission between them and occurs all in the one setting. The story line has the first half occurring during the final dress rehearsal the night before the opening night and the second half during the opening night.


Quite a few times during the production the brother goes offstage into the "blue light" and usually comments about the snow. I wasn't sure how the photos taken there would come out but they actually did pretty well.


The story line has this rather odd family coming together at the home of the parents after the father has been found dead in the library. This photo has the sister/daughter and the new wife of the brother, who it turns out is his 13th. The others have all died.


The butler is at the left, then the Mother who is 93 years old. The actress is supposedly both hard of hearing and very forgetful of her lines.


Remember, this is during the rehearsal half so we often have others on the stage. At the left is the author of the screen play who is upset at the way it is being presented and at the right is the one financing the play who also happens to be the father of the actress playing the new young wife. He is also a bit unhappy about some of the goings on that are happening- more later.


Once the young wife learned about her husband's marriage history, she seemed to be more interested in the butler than the original husband. Here she has lost her dress. I never fully understood the face painting on the butler, but it is different.


Again, remember this is the rehearsal half. Here the stage hand, who is a little different, is getting consoled by the director while the sister looks on wondering what is going on.


I like this young lady. She has appeared in four productions at RiverBelle and we have had the privilege of seeing three of them. She plays her roles very well.


Now the young wife and the butler have been getting a bit frisky and Daddy, the financier of the production, is getting upset. We also have the ace detective who is here to investigate the murder of the Father onstage.


The sister/daughter and the new wife have a bit of a battle. This is the second time through this scene as the first bottle, a sugar based one, broke rather unbelievably when she smacked it on the head of the sister. I don't think going to a fight with a bottle against a gun is a good thing, but neither of them gets hurt.


We are now into the second half after the intermission. This is during the first performance for live audiences. The Director came up with the idea of putting a ear receiver on the Mother so she can be given her lines from offstage and he sent the stage hand off to buy one. He came up with this rather large headphone set, and it really doesn't work all that well. Especially when the Mother starts repeating off-stage comments that are not her lines but she is hearing.


In order to make the role of the Mother work better, the Director dresses himself up in a like outfit and comes onto the stage to play the role. Now we often have two Mother's onstage at once which gets interesting. You also notice the new look of the butler. It seems the financier thought he should be a French Butler, so this is the look he adopted for the second half. Interesting.


We finally find out who has been killing all of the people- yes there are more than just the Father. It seems the stage hand is the culprit and here he is trying to make his escape while using the young wife as a hostage. He eventually gets captured and it ends well.

I haven't done a very good job of describing the story line and part of that is because I am not sure I fully understand the story line. But that may be a part of the idea- it is kind of a murder mystery farce. Anyway, it was a lot of fun and we are really looking forward to the next production there. I think our neighbors will also try to attend along with us. You don't have to go to the big city to enjoy good live productions. Look around your local community- you'll no doubt find a lot of things that are well worth your support. Go for it!

Labels: Comedy, Entertainment, Photos