LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth |
|||||
Ruthless Players Bare All, Tell All |
|||||
Shades of yesteryear when the shaving cream ad admonished, "Take it off, take it all off...," last week as Dick Pack sacrificed his beardamong other thingsin preparation for his portrayal of Sylvia St. Croix in Milfords Second Street Players production of Ruthless. Pack put himself in the hands of Drexel Davison and the staff at Bad Hair Day? as he submitted to being shorn of beard and stripped of hair in all the places that Miss St. Croix would not tolerate hirsuteness. He also learned the make-up secrets of the stars so he can go beyond basic pancake and blush traditionally worn by men on stage. Ruthless opens Second Street Players 1998 season March 20, and the state premiere hopes to follow on the high heels of the Off-Broadway production that played to sold-out audiences for an extensive run in New York City. Show dates are March 20, 21, 22, 27, 28 and 29; tickets are on sale now. The heartwarming tale of a little girl who is willing to kill for the role of Pippi Longstockings, a theatre critic who is so cruel that she will slash and trash her own family members, and a demure backstage mom with talents so well hidden even she does not know about them, Ruthless is as campy as they come. Director Eddie Cohee said that he cast Ruthless with an eye for someone who could sing the roles and one who could assume the look and style of silver screen stars of the 1940swith their tongue firmly in their cheeks. This cast may give a whole new meaning to over-the-top. Appearing are Donna de Kuyper, Ann Maloney, Kane Mowrey, Sandra Naumann and Pack. Rachel Silkworth makes her debut as little Tina Denmark. Even the biographies that appear in the playbill carry out the high camp and hi jinx tone of the show. Cohee admits to doctoring them a little, but he thinks that the audience needs to know the truth about some of the most popular actors in southern Delaware. Some might be shocked to know that Lewes resident deKuyper is actually in a witness protection program that supplied her with a picture-book family and an innocent- appearing job at the Delaware Music School. The crime that she allegedly observed has something to do with the infamous Pippi Longstockings and what happens to little girls whose braids are too uppity. Maloney, long a favorite with southern Delaware audiences, admits to making a career out of juvenile delinquency, whose she wont say. She has finally gone public with some of her other activities such as crashing weddings and bar mitzvahs where she insists on singing until she is pelted with food to last a week. Mowrey is at last comfortable in a role that showcases her talent, which is non-existent. The truth is out that all the roles she held as a singer were fake, and she fills her time teaching school children to utilize their own non-existent talents. After appearing in such traditional roles as Henry Higgins, Big Daddy and The Odd Couples Oscar, Pack finally gets to dress the part in Ruthless. Still smarting from being excommunicated from his audition for Nunsense II, he feels his acting career has taken a turn down a fashionable runway. Silkworth modestly admits to being a star since the age of two. She has sung at sporting events, school and community productions and at every family gathering where there is not enough food to shut her up. Strangely enough, at each of these productions, her understudy has mysteriously disappeared. The elusive Nauman is reluctant to share her past experiences with the public, choosing to let her work speak and sing for itself. It is known that she and Barbra Streisand are never seen at the same time. Probably, the only honest blurb in the Ruthless playbill is that of Cohees history. Some people really are born in a trunk. The off-the-wall musical comedy is aimed to appeal to a broad range of mature audience members; the plays language includes only the occasional mild expletive of a gentler genre than those we hear used on most of nighttime television. Friday and Saturday curtains are 8 p.m.; Sunday matinees 3 p.m. Tickets: $12; senior citizens and students: $11 for matinees only. The theatre is accessible to people with disabilities. To order tickets, call the Second Street Players at (302) 422-0220. Riverfront Theatre is located at 2 S. Walnut, Milford, Delaware. Second Street Players is a non-profit group and is supported in part, by the Delaware Division of the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. |
|||||
LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth, Vol. 8, No. 2, March 13, 1998. |
|||||