“A FAIRY TALE GONE AMOK" IS RIGHT.

MARK YOUR CALENDAR!

This summer while up north, I received e-mails almost every other day about the Act Two Community Theater’s upcoming rehearsals, for I was being sent the same notices being sent to the cast members of “Once Upon a Time,” the play they are performing on December 8. It seemed they were rehearsing with a vengeance (and eating almost as often, I might add). They were learning their lines, changing the script, now incorporating dancers, now painting backdrop scenes, and (having made the round of the thrift stores) even making their own costumes. What was I going to find when I got back to the Village?

I found out on October 15 when I attended their dress rehearsal. For a small group of mostly amateurs, performing now for only a little over a year, they are putting on an extravaganza. Did I say small group? It’s not so small now; it’s up to 26 players, almost as many as took part in the Resident Show.

The play is about Cinderella. Simple enough, yes? Well, not so fast, for this is a slightly different Cinderella. Cinderella is a fairy tale, and when you get into the Land of Faerie, anything can happen, including the intrusion of OTHER fairy tales, which is what happens here.

It will help to watch the first part of the play closely. Do you remember your old fairy tales—Sleeping Beauty, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and Beauty and the Beast? Do you recall The Wizard of Oz with the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good? Do you remember the curses and the remedies? Watch for these signs of FAIRY TALE MIX-UP.

Listen carefully to the narrator as the play proceeds. There is a surprise ending, but I will leave it to you to find out if it is a happy one, for Cinderella nearly goes off the rails.

Act Two Community Theater has the use of Classroom C for this production, so hopefully there will be plenty of room for everyone who wants to attend. Remember, the actors and stagehands for the most part are not professionals; they are past their prime and the sets have been cobbled together. Cut them some slack! They are your neighbors having a good time and hoping you do, too.

The show is on Monday, December 8, 2014, and starts at 7:00 p.m. Sit down, get comfortable, let yourself drift back into the World of Faerie, and enjoy!