The Legend of Georgia McBride

By Matthew Lopez

Directed by Cheryl Singer

The Characters

CASEY: An Elvis Impersonator who works at Cleo’s bar (20’s)
JO: Casey’s Wife (20’s) African American
EDDIE: The owner of Cleo’s bar (50’s, 60’s)
TRACEY: Eddie’s cousin and an elegant, down-on-her-luck drag queen named Miss Tracey Mills (sometimes referred to as Bobby)
REXY*: a not-so-elegant drag queen named Miss Anorexia Nervosa (20’s, 30’s)
JASON*: Casey’s lifelong friend, neighbour, and landlord

*REXY and JASON are played by the same actor.
*For the character of Jo, an actor of colour will be shown preference

The Story

He’s young, he’s broke, his landlord’s knocking at the door, and he’s just found out his wife is going to have a baby. To make matters even more desperate, Casey is fired from his gig as an Elvis impersonator in a run-down, small-town Florida bar. When the bar owner brings in a B-level drag show to replace his act, Casey finds that he has a whole lot to learn about show business – and himself.

For more information or to borrow a script, please email Director Cheryl Singer at: csinger50@gmail.com

Who did it, where, and with what? Was it Mr. Green in the conservatory with the dagger? Or Mrs. Peacock with in the library the revolver? Did the butler do it?

Prince Edward Community Theatre’s latest, Clue, features an ensemble cast in a stage-farce version of a beloved murder-mystery game.

What’s not love?! If you know your Agatha Christie, you know the scenario. Six guests, a remote mansion, a dinner party. The host dies and everyone is a suspect. Or a victim.

The ensemble includes PECT regulars and some new, younger faces, including Jaye Snyder in a directorial debut. No stranger to the Mount Tabor stage, Mx. Snyder has taken charge of an ambitious set: there are doors to slam, trap doors to open, stunt props to operate — and fourteen scenes to change. There are nearly as many crew behind the scenes as there are characters.

“There are doors you see and doors you don’t see. There is non-stop movement. This play is fun because it’s based on the board game, which, of course, has between eight and twelve rooms, right? So we have to bring eight to twelve rooms to one stage.

“There are people coming in and out every which way! And did I mention the dead bodies?”

The director says the film Clue was not the main influence for their vision of the play. It was the genuine article: the board game. “This was one of my favorite board games. I brought an actual notebook and took notes on people’s eyebrow movements in the game. This was successful for me. Yes, I was that kid.”

About directing for the first time, “I was very nervous as soon as other people started getting involved. But as soon as we went through auditions and I cast everybody I was thinking, ‘oh, I like this cast, they have such a good sound.’ Everybody just wants to bring everything to this play.”

The ensemble work is a perfect fit for the theatre troupe. President Deb Smith is excited about the younger set: “it’s a great new energy for us. The show has a several younger members who are trying much more challenging roles.”

“Clue: Onstage” runs Saturday October 26 through November 3. 

By Chris Fanning

From the Picton Gazette

Play based on the classic board game comes to Mount Tabor

There is skullduggery afoot when six mysterious guests are invited to a dinner party at a remote mansion. They are greeted by the butler, who notes they have all been given pseudonyms to hide their identities and who assures them that their host will join them soon. A tangled web of deceit links all of them, including the maid and the cook. Their host, the presciently named Mr. Boddy, joins them during dinner and presents each of them with a weapon—a revolver, a dagger, a rope, a candlestick, a lead pipe and a wrench— and exhorts them to murder the butler to protect their secrets. The lights go out and a shot is heard. Thus begins a madcap evening of murder and mayhem, brought to the Mount Tabor stage by Prince Edward Community Theatre (PECT). The play, Clue: On Stage, is based on the 1985 movie Clue, inspired by the classic board game. The cast of characters is well known: Wadsworth (the butler), Miss Scarlet, Colonel Mustard, Mr. Green, Professor Plum, Mrs. White, Mrs. Peacock, Yvette the maid, and The Cook. They are brought to life (and sometimes, death) on the Mount Tabor stage by a mix of veteran community theatre players and newcomers.

Jaye Snyder is making their directorial debut with this play. They have been involved in County community theatre for over 20 years, most recently appearing in Crimes of the Heart. Jaye recently joined the PECT board and took on the position of Audience Relations Manager, with front of house duties. They also did some backstage work and was assistant director for last spring’s Two in the Aisle, Three in the Van. When this play was chosen on the schedule, Jaye jumped at the opportunity to direct it. “I loved the board game, I love the movie. I stood up and said I’d direct because this is something that had to happen,” they said. It has been a challenge to direct a play with so many different scenes on the small stage at Mount Tabor. There is a fair bit of the cast all exiting one door, a quick scene change by the crew, before the cast reenters through a different door. The rising body count in the play presented its own problem. “It’s been a challenge to choreograph the safe movement of bodies,” said Jaye.

One of the new cast members is Nicki Ramjass, who plays Mrs. White. She has done some onscreen acting in Toronto and appeared in radio plays on CountyFM. This is her first onstage performance. She heard about the play from Jaye, who is her neighbour as well as a work colleague at Base31, and decided to take part. “The one thing I noticed about community theatre here was that it was so much fun,” she said. The challenge for her has been to remember all of her lines. “It helped to write all of my lines together, separate from the rest of the script. A long rehearsal time really helped me. But once we got on stage and you can get movement with your lines, then you can attach them to something,” she said. Another newcomer is Tomas Crossley, who plays Colonel Mustard. “I’m really excited to be on stage. It feels really good. This is something totally out of the ordinary for me,” he said. He added that he sometimes finds it difficult to keep a straight face during rehearsals. “I have some of the sillier lines, and it’s a bit of a dumb character who provides some comic relief.” Don Leslie plays the notorious Mr. Boddy, as well as two other characters. He had a part in Anne of Green Gables at Mount Tabor and says this is a totally different experience than the musical. He was impressed by the degree of professionalism at all stages of this production, from early rehearsals at Bethany Church in Bloomfield right up to rehearsals on the Mount Tabor stage. “We started in August, and that was a lot of lead time. Right from the beginning, the way we worked through all of the scenes at Bethany Church before we got to Mount Tabor, they were mapping out on the floor, marking which door to go in and out of. For a community theatre, there was just that kind of professional attitude that everyone has their roles to play, and that was really helpful for me,” he said.

Story and Photo by Ramesh Pooran

From the Wellington Times