Author Archive

“Mornings at Seven”

Directed by Robin Ervin

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March 19, 20, 21, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28
Box Office Opens March 15
Evening performances 8:00 pm
Sunday Matinees 2:30 pm

Two houses, whose backyards adjoin, set the scene for this buoyant and charming comedy where we meet four sisters in a small Midwestern town in 1938, their husbands, and offspring. This American “chestnut” about hope, lost dreams, love, and families, is a heart-warming, funny, and emotionally satisfying play. Recently revived on Broadway to stunning success, we are happy to bring this marvelously life affirming play to our stage.

$18 Adults
$15 Seniors (60+)
$10 Students (Up to 23 w/ID)
Box Office Hours: 1 – 6 PM
477-3342 or 471-PLAY

“An absolute charmer…. will make you smile, and laugh out loud.” —NY Daily News

Cast:

Theodore Swanson……………..Tony Zelonis

Cora Swanson……………….… Paige Henson

Aaronetta Gibbs…………………Clyde Austin

Ida Bolton……….………..……..Becky Yeatman

Carl Bolton………………………John T. Jones

Homer Bolton………..……..…..Richard Jeter

Myrtle Brown……………………Elizabeth Warren

Esther Crampto……………..…..Lee Kingery-Clark

David Crampton………..……….Ken Clark

The Friday night (February 12, 2010) performance of “Rumors” has been cancelled due to inclement weather. Most reservations have been transferred to the Saturday and Sunday performances. There are seats available for the Saturday 8:00 PM performance and the Sunday 2:30 matinee. If you are unable to reach the box office, plenty of tickets will be available at the door. Saturday’s performance will feature a pre-show serenade by The Sweet Georgia Sound.

Macon Little Theatre’s production of “Rumors” opened on February 5 and brought the audience to its feet on all three shows. A talented cast under the direction of Chuck NeSmith displayed its comic timing and breakneck pace to three hungry audiences and left everyone fully satisfied. M. Jared Carson and Betsey Brindger (as Ken and Chris Gorman) open the show setting the table with hints and suppositions about just what is going on at this anniversary dinner party. Adding to the confusion is the arrival of Chris Ikner and Ashley Carson (as Lenny and Clair Ganz) who are suffering the effects of an accident in their new BMW. Compounding the menu of chaos are Billy Bishop and Laura Bechtel (as Ernie and Cookie Cusack) who add to the current rumors and create new comic situations. When the antics of these three couples has the comedy pot boiling, the mixture is further spiced by the arrival of Bryson Holloway and Colby Atkins (as Glenn and Cassie Cooper) who bring their personal bickering to further complicate the plot. Just before this mirthful miasma bubbles over, David Lintz and Eddie Smith (as Officer Welch and Officer Pudney) show up to serve up a solution to the entire smorgasbord of lies, deceit and confusion. “Rumor” is a complete meal. Under the direction of Chef Chuck NeSmith, these ten tasty actors provide a wholesome dose of comedy far exceeding the minimum daily requirement of laughter and fun. The set itself is a centerpiece to enhance any table. Designed and constructed by Chuck NeSmith, John Daniel and Felder Frederick, it could actually be rented out between performances. Leonard Boswell’s light design and Tommy Knight’s light board services highlighted the action and enhanced eye appeal. Richard Jeter provided just the right sound effects at just the right times to suspend all disbelief. Making sure all elements blended for the perfect soufflé of entertainment was stage manager, Danielle Thuen assisted by Elizabeth Warren.

“Rumors”

Written by Neil Simon
Directed by Chuck NeSmith
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February 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14
Evening performances 8:00 pm
Sunday Matinees 2:30 pm

Neil Simon is America’s best-known living playwright and the author of well know comedies such as “The Odd Couple”, “Barefoot in the Park” and “The Sunshine Boys”. “Rumors” is a fast paced, laugh-a-minute comedy that will keep you guessing to the very end. Several affluent couples gather in the posh suburban residence of a couple for a dinner party celebrating their tenth anniversary. When they arrive, they discover there are no servants, the hostess is missing, and the host – the deputy mayor of New York City – has shot himself through the earlobe. Comic complications arise when, given everyone’s upper class status, they decide they need to do everything possible to conceal the evening’s events from the local police and the media. Don’t miss this fun filled evening and learn the consequences of “rumors”.

$18 Adults
$15 Seniors (60+)
$10 Students (Up to 23 w/ID)
Box Office Hours: 1 – 6 PM
477-3342 or 471-PLAY

Reprinted with permission from The Telegraph from Editorial Page on Friday, January 8, 2010. (macon.com)

By Ed Corson

When I was a child, the world’s busiest stretch of railroad ran two blocks from our house in New Jersey. But because the sound of the trains had always been in my ears, I rarely noticed it.
Fast forward to 1967, when I arrived in Macon to teach at Mercer. Raised an hour’s trip from Broadway, my standard for theater and music, here I saw an entertainment wasteland.
There was no Macon Symphony Orchestra; no Middle Georgia Civic Chorale; no Theatre Macon. No Centreplex. The Grand was a rundown movie house.
Except for college-kid productions, this city boy’s idea of high-end entertainment was missing. The Civic Club musical then was a black-face minstrel show.
That community theater on Forsyth Road? I read mentions of the Macon Little Theatre but the “little” suggested amateurishness — maybe the hobby of a few socialites, but hardly performances worth my attention. As with the train noises of my childhood, they were there, but so what?
That changed in October 1970. A professor who had been reviewing cultural events for The Telegraph moved away. A theater minor in college, I auditioned to replace him by attending my first MLT play. After I rushed downtown and cranked out a reasonably informed review in under an hour, I had the job.
But something else happened to me that night. That theatrical train I hadn’t heard coming knocked me for a loop. Wow! Those MLT people knew what they were doing — not provincial dabblers but accomplished actors in a fine production. How long had this been going on? Later, I learned that during the MLT’s 36 years, some of these amateurs had played more varied and challenging parts than many Broadway professionals.
Since then I have been an annual MLT season-ticket holder. I’m not objective: my daughter now heads the MLT board, my son-in-law does lighting for many productions and both my granddaughters have appeared on stage.
Macon Little Theatre is in danger. And Macon would be much poorer without it — despite so many entertainment alternatives in Middle Georgia nowadays, including several other community theater groups.
The MLT has met a real need by producing several hundred plays for 76 unbroken years since the curtain first went up on March 15, 1934.
Generations of talented Middle Georgians who chose not to pursue the theater professionally could include theater in their lives. Generations of children, such as my daughter and grandchildren, would catch the theater virus at MLT and grow up to perform or replenish its audiences. Hundreds of volunteers have worked behind the scenes.
Above all, MLT has provided entertainment for the entire community. Its membership and casts are now racially diverse. For years it filled its 390-seat auditorium night after night. In almost every cast, theatre manager John T. Jones tells me, there are not only experienced players but at least one or two people making theatrical debuts. There’s a steady supply of new blood on stage.
The audience needs a transfusion, too. For many young Macon adults, MLT seems unknown or unnoticed — maybe because it has been here for so long, like the trains I never heard.
MLT almost went under in 2003 when a fiscal crisis arose. Its members rallied around and it survived. But now, economic hard times have cut deeply into its revenue. A nonprofit that receives no government funding on any level, it depends on grants, donations, a few corporate sponsors and, most of all, ticket sales for its survival.
And ticket sales must increase or a valuable resource will be lost. Check out www.maconlittletheatre.org. Go see the next play, which opens Feb. 5. You’ll be hooked, as I was nearly 40 years ago.

Ed Corson can be reached on line at ecorson@yahoo.com.