CSCT Goes A Little ‘Savage’ In Play
February 8, 2017 at 6:53 p.m.
CSCT Goes A Little ‘Savage’ In Play
By David [email protected]
Performances of John Patrick’s “The Curious Savage” are scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Feb. 17-18, 24-25 and 2 p.m. Feb. 19 and 26 at Wagon Wheel Center for the Arts. Tickets are $12.
“It is about a woman who has been left $10 million by her husband who passed away. Her adult stepchildren believe that they have a right to the money, and when they can’t access it, they commit her to a sanatorium in an attempt to collect the money,” explained director Melissa Jordan.
The spoiled adult stepchildren are Titus (Eric Totheroh), Lily Belle (Tara Akers) and Samuel (Todd Lucas).
The woman, Ethel Savage (Jennier Mitchell Shepherd), meets the other residents of the sanatorium, The Cloisters. The other patients include Fairy (Madisson Heinl), Florence (Emilie Judy), Hannibal (Justin Weaver), Mrs. Paddy (Cindy Nash) and Jeff (Tanor Joy).
“There’s a large contrast that we see between her step kids, who are supposed to be sane, and the sanatorium residents, who are supposed to be crazy, and their kindness and more humanness; and how the stepchildren in their attempts to get the money are just kind of crazy themselves,” Jordan said.
The Cloisters is staffed by Dr. Emett (Jay Rigdon) and Miss Willie (Aubrey McQuade).
Jordan said “The Curious Savage,” which was first performed in the 1950s, is a pretty popular play, done around the country at high schools and community theaters.
For her, directing the comedy is the end of a 14-year break.
She went to Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids, Mich., earning a minor in drama. Jordan directed a few things there. Coming to Warsaw in 2001, she directed “Barefoot in the Park” at the Winona Lake amphitheater in 2002. She hadn’t directed since then, and “The Curious Savage” is also her first time directing for CSCT.
“We are staying very true to the text and it’s set in the early 1950s, and we’re trying to keep that as close as possible. It’s a fun show and I have a really, really great cast. They’re really getting into their characters and doing an amazing job,” Jordan said.
Shepherd directed the same play when she taught drama at Warsaw Community High School years ago. She’s finding it a little more difficult to be in the show now than it was to direct it years ago.
“I have a lot of lines and I’m not as young as I used to be, so that part stresses me out. I’ve tried really hard not to make comments as I see things that have potential. But it is sort of community theater so people still do make comments. We all sort of say, ‘Hey what if you do this?,’ ‘What if you said it like this?’ But it’s definitely different being on the other side of it,” Shepherd stated.
Describing his role as Dr. Emett, Rigdon said, “He is the head of the sanitorium, so he’s kind of the central, calm, usual voice of reason around which all the wackiness runs. I would probably be the straight man, yes.”
This isn’t the first time Rigdon has played a doctor in a CSCT production. In “M*A*S*H” in fall 2015, he played Hawkeye. When he auditioned for “The Curious Savage,” he didn’t know he’d land the role of another doctor much less what the show was about.
“I really hadn’t heard too much about the show and didn’t know too much about it until I auditioned. But I was anxious to get back and involved in Center Street Community Theatre productions again. I think it’s a great group of people we have here. It’s a lot of fun to be with them, when I have time and life allows me to commit the time I commit to this,” Rigdon said.
“Apparently, I’m typecast as a doctor because, of course, I played Hawkeye in ‘M*A*S*H.’”
Rigdon encouraged the public to come out and see the show.
“It is so much fun. All of the other actors here are so fun and entertaining. There are so many good lines and so many good bits. There are parts that I’ve heard folks perform this 10 times, and I’ve heard the lines 20 times, and I still laugh out loud every time I see them do it or hear them do it. It really is that funny,” he stated.
Shepherd said the theater group has trouble finding shows that the community recognizes.
“There’s a part of you as an artist that doesn’t always want to do a show because it’s recognized. You want to do a show because the content is good and it’s a good story. Like the one we just did last fall called ‘Over the River and Through the Woods.’ It’s a beautiful piece. It’s a fairly new show, so nobody knows what it’s about. So our audience was not as robust as we would have liked them to have been. So this show is not necessarily one that people know. It’s done by a lot of community theaters, it’s done by a lot of high schools. It’s very family friendly, it has a large, decent number of characters. So we try to pick shows that have a good number of people in it and then you kind of hope that enough people know those people. Anymore, that’s how we kind of get our audience,” Shepherd explained.
“I think this one will be just as good as all of the other ones. Our challenge is getting the community to say, ‘I want to go to that,’” she said. “For whatever reason, I think sometimes they think it’s a community show, it’s not going to be as good as Wagon Wheel. Well, there’s some very professional, quality actors in the shows that we do, so it’s a little frustrating.”
If people just give it a chance, she said they’d be pleasantly surprised.
“I would have been involved in community theater had there been one the whole time I’ve lived here, but it was just a matter of there was no options of getting involved in anything, so as soon as there was, I was involved in it,” Jordan said.
She acted in three previous CSCT shows.
“And I think everyone just steps up who has an interest in directing and kind of takes on that role. If they don’t have any experience, then we kind of encourage them to assistant direct and just make sure they are familiar with what they should be doing before they take on the main role,” Jordan said.
She strongly encouraged the public to come out and see “The Curious Savage.”
“It’s just a really fun show. It’s heartwarming. I think people are going to laugh, people are going to cry. It’s a show you have to see, you can’t just read it. It comes to life with the characters,” Jordan stated.
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Performances of John Patrick’s “The Curious Savage” are scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Feb. 17-18, 24-25 and 2 p.m. Feb. 19 and 26 at Wagon Wheel Center for the Arts. Tickets are $12.
“It is about a woman who has been left $10 million by her husband who passed away. Her adult stepchildren believe that they have a right to the money, and when they can’t access it, they commit her to a sanatorium in an attempt to collect the money,” explained director Melissa Jordan.
The spoiled adult stepchildren are Titus (Eric Totheroh), Lily Belle (Tara Akers) and Samuel (Todd Lucas).
The woman, Ethel Savage (Jennier Mitchell Shepherd), meets the other residents of the sanatorium, The Cloisters. The other patients include Fairy (Madisson Heinl), Florence (Emilie Judy), Hannibal (Justin Weaver), Mrs. Paddy (Cindy Nash) and Jeff (Tanor Joy).
“There’s a large contrast that we see between her step kids, who are supposed to be sane, and the sanatorium residents, who are supposed to be crazy, and their kindness and more humanness; and how the stepchildren in their attempts to get the money are just kind of crazy themselves,” Jordan said.
The Cloisters is staffed by Dr. Emett (Jay Rigdon) and Miss Willie (Aubrey McQuade).
Jordan said “The Curious Savage,” which was first performed in the 1950s, is a pretty popular play, done around the country at high schools and community theaters.
For her, directing the comedy is the end of a 14-year break.
She went to Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids, Mich., earning a minor in drama. Jordan directed a few things there. Coming to Warsaw in 2001, she directed “Barefoot in the Park” at the Winona Lake amphitheater in 2002. She hadn’t directed since then, and “The Curious Savage” is also her first time directing for CSCT.
“We are staying very true to the text and it’s set in the early 1950s, and we’re trying to keep that as close as possible. It’s a fun show and I have a really, really great cast. They’re really getting into their characters and doing an amazing job,” Jordan said.
Shepherd directed the same play when she taught drama at Warsaw Community High School years ago. She’s finding it a little more difficult to be in the show now than it was to direct it years ago.
“I have a lot of lines and I’m not as young as I used to be, so that part stresses me out. I’ve tried really hard not to make comments as I see things that have potential. But it is sort of community theater so people still do make comments. We all sort of say, ‘Hey what if you do this?,’ ‘What if you said it like this?’ But it’s definitely different being on the other side of it,” Shepherd stated.
Describing his role as Dr. Emett, Rigdon said, “He is the head of the sanitorium, so he’s kind of the central, calm, usual voice of reason around which all the wackiness runs. I would probably be the straight man, yes.”
This isn’t the first time Rigdon has played a doctor in a CSCT production. In “M*A*S*H” in fall 2015, he played Hawkeye. When he auditioned for “The Curious Savage,” he didn’t know he’d land the role of another doctor much less what the show was about.
“I really hadn’t heard too much about the show and didn’t know too much about it until I auditioned. But I was anxious to get back and involved in Center Street Community Theatre productions again. I think it’s a great group of people we have here. It’s a lot of fun to be with them, when I have time and life allows me to commit the time I commit to this,” Rigdon said.
“Apparently, I’m typecast as a doctor because, of course, I played Hawkeye in ‘M*A*S*H.’”
Rigdon encouraged the public to come out and see the show.
“It is so much fun. All of the other actors here are so fun and entertaining. There are so many good lines and so many good bits. There are parts that I’ve heard folks perform this 10 times, and I’ve heard the lines 20 times, and I still laugh out loud every time I see them do it or hear them do it. It really is that funny,” he stated.
Shepherd said the theater group has trouble finding shows that the community recognizes.
“There’s a part of you as an artist that doesn’t always want to do a show because it’s recognized. You want to do a show because the content is good and it’s a good story. Like the one we just did last fall called ‘Over the River and Through the Woods.’ It’s a beautiful piece. It’s a fairly new show, so nobody knows what it’s about. So our audience was not as robust as we would have liked them to have been. So this show is not necessarily one that people know. It’s done by a lot of community theaters, it’s done by a lot of high schools. It’s very family friendly, it has a large, decent number of characters. So we try to pick shows that have a good number of people in it and then you kind of hope that enough people know those people. Anymore, that’s how we kind of get our audience,” Shepherd explained.
“I think this one will be just as good as all of the other ones. Our challenge is getting the community to say, ‘I want to go to that,’” she said. “For whatever reason, I think sometimes they think it’s a community show, it’s not going to be as good as Wagon Wheel. Well, there’s some very professional, quality actors in the shows that we do, so it’s a little frustrating.”
If people just give it a chance, she said they’d be pleasantly surprised.
“I would have been involved in community theater had there been one the whole time I’ve lived here, but it was just a matter of there was no options of getting involved in anything, so as soon as there was, I was involved in it,” Jordan said.
She acted in three previous CSCT shows.
“And I think everyone just steps up who has an interest in directing and kind of takes on that role. If they don’t have any experience, then we kind of encourage them to assistant direct and just make sure they are familiar with what they should be doing before they take on the main role,” Jordan said.
She strongly encouraged the public to come out and see “The Curious Savage.”
“It’s just a really fun show. It’s heartwarming. I think people are going to laugh, people are going to cry. It’s a show you have to see, you can’t just read it. It comes to life with the characters,” Jordan stated.
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