FAIRFIELD BAY — Our Towne Productions has a new home for its shows — the performing arts center in the newly remodeled Our Towne Conference and Visitor Center. The company’s first production in the new venue will be Hallelujah Girls by Jesse Jones, Nicholas Hope and Jamie Wooten.
Curtain time will be 7 p.m. Dec. 6-7 and Dec. 13-14. Dinner will be offered before the play.
Tickets are $15, or two for $25 for the performance, and $12.50 each for the meal. Tickets are on sale at the conference center, 110 Lost Creek Parkway; the Fairfield Bay Library, 369 Dave Creek Parkway; and the Little Red Restaurant, 373 Dave Creek Parkway. All proceeds will benefit the library.
Sharon Luxon and Jackie Rohrer are the producers and directors of Our Towne Productions.
“We own it,” Luxon said. She said Stas Ziolkowski, who presented plays in Fairfield Bay as Stas’ Productions for several years before moving to Pittsburgh earlier this year, gave them his production company.
“He just gave it to us,” Luxon said. “In the six years he was here, he produced 15 plays.”
The most recent productions by the local troupe of actors were Man of La Mancha in August 2011 and The Odd Couple, Female Version, in November 2012, both at the Bay View Club.
Luxon said everyone involved in Our Towne Productions is a volunteer.
“Some are in college, some work, and some are retired,” she said. “We are here because we want to be here. It’s always the same group of actors. Of course, we are always open to new people, but we don’t have auditions. They just call Jackie or me and let us know they are interested. Then we call the people we want to be in the plays. It works really well. That way, there’s no arguing, no fussing; we’re the bosses.”
Luxon said the community theater group tries to do three productions a year.
“Hallelujah Girls will be our holiday show,” Luxon said,
adding that there are several references to Christmas, as well as other holidays, in the show. “Then we hope to do one in April and one in the summer.”
Luxon said the action in Hallelujah Girls takes place in Eden Falls, Ga., in an abandoned church turned into a day spa. After the loss of a dear friend, the five women realize they need to make their lives better and gather together every week to change their lives. Tension mounts when an ex-boyfriend shows up unexpectedly, a marriage proposal comes from an unlikely suitor, and Sugar Lee’s archrival vows she’ll stop at nothing to steal the spa away from her.
Cast members include the following:
• Jackie Rohrer portrays Crystal, who celebrates all holidays with costumes and music.
• Sharon Luxon appears as Carlene, the manicurist at the spa, who is known as the “black widow of Eden Falls” because all three of her husbands have died under unusual circumstances.
• David McBee plays Porter, who is Carlene’s “start-up” boyfriend and a mamma’s boy.
• Frieda McClellan is Bunny, who is the “self-appointed socialite of the community” and is Sugar Lee’s archrival.
• Dan Feuer portrays Bobby Dwayne, who is Sugar Lee’s ex-boyfriend.
• Janice Thompson plays Mavis, the oldest of the five friends, who wonders about her marriage.
• Seana Garrow is Nita, who tries to control her husband.
• Cindy Ritchie plays Sugar Lee, owner of the spa.
Members of the crew include Ernest Campbell, set designer; Sharon Shafer, prompter and set changer; Pat Etheridge, stage manager; Linda Tangen, costume designer; Bonnie Hookman, set designer; and David McClellan, sound.