'Boeing Boeing' promises to bring down the playhouse
By:
Jamie Hult, Staff writer
The cast of Boeing, Boeing rehearse for the Mighty Corson Art Players’ fall production. The cast includes (on ground) Erin Sharp, Casey Ring, (standing, from left) Emily Dykstra, Rose Rhead and Glenda Kluckman. Jamie Hult/BV Journal
The Mighty Corson Art Players is kicking off its 35th season of community theatre in the Brandon area with the rip-roaring, side-splitting stage classic Boeing Boeing.
Chaos follows Bernard, an American living in Paris with a complicated love life: three fiancées, all airline stewardesses, and all clueless as to the others’ existence. With the help of his French maid, Bernard juggles the women with pinpoint precision – all up until the point when, of course, he doesn’t.
“Our actors are doing great things with physical comedy and timing and the interplay between various people who aren’t supposed to know others exist,” said director Brian Schipper. “It’s just a disaster for Bernard from beginning to end, and disaster for Bernard is good times for people watching.”
Even the cast is having a hard time delivering their lines with straight faces.
“We die laughing in rehearsals, so I can only imagine what it’s going to be like for audiences,” said Emily Dykstra, who plays Bernard’s Italian fiancée, Gabriella.
Translated from a French play by Marc Camoletti, Boeing Boeing has been on Broadway and community theatre stages in the area, including Brandon’s Prairie Rep stage.
Erin Sharp, who plays Bernard, was in the audience for Sioux Empire Community Theatre’s production of Boeing Boeing.
“I saw the show, and oh, I wanted to be in it,” Sharp said. “It’s a funny script.”
Casting MCAP’s production was tough, Schipper said, but not for lack of talent.
“We were so fortunate; everyone who showed up for this was superb. We were spoiled for choice. We have a really talented cast, and each one came out because the show is well-known and strong and something they wanted to be in,” Schipper said.
Dykstra and Sharp are new to the Corson Playhouse stage, as is Glenda Kluckman, who plays Bernard’s French maid, Berthe.
Rounding out the cast are a trio of MCAP veterans: Casey Ring, who plays Bernard’s brother, Robert; Renee Richter, who plays Bernard’s American fiancée, Gloria; and Rose Rhead, who plays Bernard’s German fiancée, Gretchen. Rhead has starred in 17 MCAP shows in seven years.
Boeing Boeing will run the last two weekends of the month. Show times are 7:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 20, and Saturday, Oct. 21, with a 2:30 p.m. matinee Sunday, Oct. 22; then, 7:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 27, and Saturday, Oct. 28, with a 2:30 matinee Sunday, Oct. 29.
Tickets are $10 and can be purchased at the box office prior to the show, online at mightycorsonap.com or by calling 605-582-2771.
“It’s going to be an amazing show. We’re so excited for it. Everybody’s just itching to get audiences in to share it with them,” Schipper said. “Ten-dollar tickets and $20 in the bar next door is a pretty cheap date – and fun.”
