Woodside drama presents a two-night comedy show “Daddy’s Girl.” Performances will take place in the Performing Arts Center on Nov. 22 and 23 at 7:30 p.m.
This two-act play, written by Gary Ray Stapp, takes place in Maudie’s Diner, an old-style diner. The audience follows the story of proprietor Bernard, played by senior Owen Weibell, who discovers his deceased wife is taking residence in a talking portrait on the diner wall 25 years after her passing. He is bestowed upon an angel, Michael, sent down by his late wife’s prayers, guiding him to figure out who their daughter is since they gave up for adoption when she was born. Director Bary Woodruff hopes that with eccentric characters and chaos in the diner, the audience will be in for a night of laughs and entertainment. Tickets can be purchased at https://cur8.com/23342/project/125869.
“There’s a lot of lines, a lot of story, a lot of good fun characters [and] there are 13 people in it which is quite a few characters,” Woodruff said. “They’re all fairly well developed. You really get to know all these people and what they’re like [so] in that respect it’s going to be a lot of fun.”
With its diverse characters all playing an integral part in the play, stage manager Meghan Souther expressed the implications of having a smaller cast.
“This is one of the smallest casts we’ve done as long as I’ve been here,” Souther said. “It’s interesting [and] it does definitely create a bit of a tighter-knit cast.”
In coming up with ideas on how to make this show different from previous shows that had a diner scene, the whole production team, including Souther, set master Don Coluzzi and Woodruff, had to put their heads together to make it happen.
“We’ve done a diner set before so it was kind of ‘how do we make this different than what we’ve done in the past?’” Souther said. “I think that both Don and Bary have really brought the creativity into how we make this a little bit different.”
Woodruff explained there are a lot of new elements, including real food on stage, which is atypical for theater.
“I don’t typically allow food to be eaten or anything inside the theatre and we have to have people eating sandwiches and pie,” Souther said. “[This] is a challenge for the actors because [it’s] kind of a hard thing to [do]. You usually kind of act [having] a mouthful [of food], but they’ll actually have to figure out how to say their lines clearly while also having a bite of sandwich.”
With that being said, the production team encourages the community to come out and watch their show.
“[The show] has a lot of heart,” Woodruff said. “It’s got a real good message and that’s what we like to do—shows that have a positive message of some kind.”
