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ETC is making wedding plans
» Maggie’s Getting Married, and everybody’s invited to stop
by for some laughs
BY: VANESSA MOSS
Maggie may be heading to the altar, but all the shenanigans are taking place in the family kitchen the day before the wedding. True to playwright Norm Foster’s form, the assembled group is going to offer up laughter and insight before the big day.
The goings-on at the rehearsal party will play out Apr. 25 through May 10 as the Elmira Theatre Company presents Maggie’s Getting Married.
The romantic comedy takes place the night before the wedding of Maggie Duncan (Lindsay Coombes) and Russell MacMillan (Dan Pitman). The setting is the Duncan family kitchen. In the next room, there is a small gathering of friends and relatives who have just come from the wedding rehearsal. Maggie is slightly insecure about her upcoming nuptials. Her older sister, Wanda (Michelle Kreitzer) has had quite a bit of experience with men and is more than willing to share her sage advice with Maggie. However, Wanda discovers, upon meeting Russell for the first time, that she knows the groom-to-be a little more intimately than she should.
“You have a father who’s going through a midlife crisis, watching his youngest daughter get married. You have a mother who’s trying to make everything perfect. And you’ve got an older sister who’s trying to figure out if she slept with the groom or not – she thinks she did. It’s certainly a fun show,” said director Michael Grant, clearly relishing the script.
In fact, he’s loved the play since he first read it following its release in 2001. As ETC worked up its 2007-2008 schedule, he deemed the time ripe to stage it locally.
“It’s a Norm Foster play, so you know it’s going to be funny, and that the audience is going to enjoy themselves.”
As is the case with Foster’s plays, it’s the characters and the way they interact that prove so crowd-pleasing.
The week before opening, Grant said the cast of ETC veterans is in fine stage form. Paul Dietrich and Chris Grose perform the parenting roles as Tom and Cass Duncan, while Andrew Frey rounds out the bunch as Axel Wilkie, Wanda’s “whacked-out” boyfriend.
“It’s been going really well. The only issue I have – if you can call it that – is making sure they don’t peak too soon,” laughed Grant, who last directed the winter 2007 production of Hamish, which he also wrote. That play was picked up by the Kincardine Theatre Guild, and will be performed there next month.
The Elmira Theatre Company production of Maggie’s Getting Married will be performed Thursdays (May 1 and 8), Fridays (Apr. 25, May 2 and 9) and Saturdays (Apr. 26, May 3 and 10) at 8 p.m. There are two Sunday matinees at 2:30 p.m. on Apr. 27 and May 4. Tickets are $17, available through the Centre in the Square box office, by calling 519-578-1570 or online at
www.centre-square.com.