Mack (Jerrett Leiker), Christmas tree farmer, and Jamie (Emi Simmons), the runaway, speaks with the elderly sisters Miss Alice (Shawna Koehn) and Miss Sarah (Wendy Richmeier).
By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
The Hays Community Theatre is mixing up a mad-capped comedy this holiday season complete with an exploding pig, booze-laced fruitcakes and a lost cat named Tutti Frutti.
The HCT's performance of "FrUiTCaKeS" is a performance full of fun for the whole family, said Gene Stramel, director.
Performances will be at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday at the 12th Street Auditorium.
The play takes place in a small town in Georgia in the 1980s and highlights the rural community's many eccentric characters.
Mattie Sue (Krysten Linenberger) stops by the Christmas tree farm to purchase Christmas presents for her nieces and nephews.
This includes includes elderly sisters Miss Alice played by Shawna Koehn and Miss Sarah played by Wendy Richmeier.
Beebo played by Everett Robert is the town sheriff and is sent to search for the thief who stole one of the sisters' Christmas fruitcakes. When he is not searching for the burglar, he lights up his house Grizwald style including Buster the Christmas Pig.
Stramel promises there are heart-warming moments among the laughs as Mack (Jerrett Leiker, the owner of the local Christmas-tree farm, befriends a young runaway, Jamie (Emi Simmons).
"[Mack] is sort of one of the more sane ones of all the people," Stramel said. "People come to him for advice and for things that need to be done."
Mack and Jamie talk around the fire at the Christmas tree farm.
At first, Jamie thinks this town's inhabitants are "nuttier than fruitcakes," but soon he comes to admire, appreciate and adore this nutty little town, as is explained on the HCT website.
Stramel said many of us will recognize these same characters in our own communities.
This is Stramel's second foray as a director for HCT.
"I enjoy comedies," he said. "I like doing them, becuase I like the laughs. That is why I took this project because I could bring laughter."
Mack talks with poet and fisherman Skeeter (Russell Heitmann).
Sound effects and special effects will add an extra zing to an already laugh-out-loud night.
Tickets are $10 and can be purchased online at https://www.hctks.com/ or a the door.
HCT will also be taking the show on the road for a performance at 7 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 14 at the Grainfield Opera House.
Miss Sarah pulls all sorts of interesting items out of her purse as she searches for a $1 to pay for the rest of her sister's Christmas tree. Jamie holds the contents.
Cast
Jerrett Leiker: Mack
Emi Simmons: Jamie
Tammy Freeman: Betty Jane
Everett Robert: Beebo
Aliyah Conner: Little Beebo
Avery Koehn: Sally
Shawna Koehn: Miss Alice
Wendy Richmeier: Miss Sarah
Russell Heitmann: Skeeter
Krysten Linenberger: Mattie Sue
Brooke Leiker: Little Skeeter
Tom Mai: Rick
Jadon Conner: James
Joshua Conner: Little Larry
Keira Gray: Narrator
Elizabeth Noble: Meredith
Oscar Flores: Sammy
Stage crew and tech:
Chase Mitchell
Sarah Leiker
Jeff Richmeier
Sharona Fondoble
Albert Kraus
Bryan Snyder-Brown
Gordon Schroeder
Hair and makeup:
Chelsie Nelson
Tina Maier
Beebo (Everett Robert, the sheriff, drinks a cup of coffee with Mack and Jamie at the Christmas tree farm.