A rendition by the Tellico Community Players of Michael McKeever’s “Suite Surrender” is set to begin Thursday.
Directed by Dennis Loy, “Suite Surrender” is a farce that delivers slapstick humor the whole way through. Loy and artistic director Sauni Rinehart are excited to see the cast bring laughs and eye rolls to the audience.
Plays are 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday and 1:30 p.m. Sunday and Aug. 12-15 at the Tellico Community Playhouse in Tellico Village.
The play relates to the demographics of East Tennessee, and Loy even compared it to The Carol Burnett Show. Reality is thrown out the window and the actors are bigger than life. The play follows two Hollywood divas assigned the same suite at the Palm Beach Royal Hotel in 1942.
Rinehart is also a member of the cast and plays one of the Divas, who is sharing the presidential suite with another Diva, unbeknownst to each. The comedy is about timing.
“It’s just slapstick all the way through,” Loy said. “There’s a lot of different things that are going to make people roll their eyes and say, ‘I don’t believe this.’ And, of course, that’s the point.”
Loy and Rinehart are especially pleased with the cast and production crew who bring the stage to life.
“The cast is really, really good. I ask them to do something and they do more,” Loy said. “The energy is there and once the audience sees it they’re just going to be hooked.”
The theater group is comprised of volunteers with some variation of experience. Costumes, makeup, props and set construction was all done by the crew in eight weeks.
“We are very unique in the community theater community that we have the facilities we have. We are very blessed,” Rinehart said. “We are just really fortunate we have really good volunteers in every aspect of our theater.”
Only eight or nine actors will take the stage, but there are three times that many crew members working behind the scenes. With a sophisticated lighting and sound crew, the Players are capable of producing a high quality show.
“Most people when they think of community theater they think it’s just kind of thrown together,” Loy said. “Not this theater.”
Since Loy took the role as president, the group has expanded in technology and volunteers. Part of the expansion included the incorporation of an artistic director who recruits more volunteers and manages several aspects of the production process.
“We are very blessed to be in this theater and we do not take it for granted,” Rinehart said. “Our job really is to make sure that what we show our audience is of the same caliber as our facility.”
Tickets are $21 and can be purchased at www.tellicocommunity playhouse.org.
After each Friday performance, cast and crew will open the floor to conversations with the audience about the creative process.
