Call it a two-act play. This weekend, Community Theatre of Little Rock will take to the stage with the world premiere of the comedy The Winning Numbers and also will raise money for the decades-old theater group before it launches its 60th season, which begins in September.
The Community Theatre, which has had several homes through the years, now calls Studio Theatre at 320 W. Seventh St. its home.
The Winning Numbers
7:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 2 p.m. matinee Sunday, Studio Theatre, 320 W. Seventh St., Little Rock. Box office opens an hour prior to performance with entertainment in the lobby bar.
Tickets: $16 adults; $14 military, senior citizens, students and groups of 10 or more; $6 children ages 4-9; free for infants to age 3.
(501) 410-2283
The show, being staged just for this weekend, is an original play written by S. Christopher Boggs, the theater's president and publicity coordinator. Four performances will be held, beginning with a by-invitation-only VIP show tonight, followed by evening performances Friday through Sunday and a Sunday matinee.
"I wrote it last year in January," Boggs says, adding that once the idea for it came to him, the play took about a month to write.
"It's about eight members of an office and after learning the MegaBundle Lottery jackpot is more than $600 million, seven of them decide to go in together and buy lottery tickets. If they win, they could each get $84 million before taxes, but if they don't win and they decide to pool again, then stakes could be even higher."
Through the character of Alex, the eighth co-worker, who watches things unfold and serves as the narrator, the audience is invited into the world of these characters, and given a glimpse of what is happening in their lives -- inside and outside the office.
"Throughout the story, they start to show their true colors and some of them become more desperate to win," Boggs says. "In addition to the comedy, there's also a lot of mystery and suspense over the course of a week. It becomes, 'What will they do to win?'"
Boggs says Arkansas' history with a state lottery served as his inspiration.
"A couple of years ago, our state lottery was just over $200 million. I started writing this play with the idea that this group of folks won and at first the question was, 'If you won a million dollars what would you do?'"
But as Boggs thought and wrote, the story line took a turn.
"It evolved into not so much what you would do with the money if you won but what would you do if you got so desperate to win and what's the catalyst for why you put the money in the pool in the first place -- was it to make it big? To get out of the job?"
Money raised from Boggs' show will be used to enhance the theater group's 60th season, which runs this July through June 2016.
"We're not in any kind of financial distress," he says of the theater group, which was founded in 1956. "This additional money will just help us to enhance our next season."
Boggs says the Community Theatre, which has moved from one facility to another through the years, is excited about its latest home. The Studio Theatre offers 85 main seats and the ability to seat up to 140 more.
"This is a real nice facility," he explained of the new venue, which they moved into last year. "We are very excited to be here. ... We've been kind of the gypsies of the theater community, but the shows that we have done have really blossomed. Our summer musicals shows have been some of the best shows we've done."
All of the cast and crew members are volunteers, including Boggs, who began volunteering as a staff member with the group eight years ago.
"We do this because it's a passion," he says. "It's a labor of love; we love entertaining the public. If we can make someone laugh and then shake their hands after the show, we've done our job."
The theater group will announce its lineup for the 60th season at the opening of this season's final production, 9 to 5, which runs June 5 through June 21.
"It's a fantastic lineup for our 60th season with two musicals and three plays," Boggs says. In honor of the 60th anniversary, four of the five shows next season were earlier staged by the theater group -- one of them 56 years ago, another 35 years ago, another one 18 years ago, and the fourth one 13 years ago. They correspond with the seasons in which they're presented -- the Christmas show has a winter theme, and so on. They were popular shows that were done nationally; several went on to have movies made from them.
"The fifth show is a brand new one to us."
Weekend on 04/23/2015