“Bad Seed" at the Playcrafters Barn Theatre -- June 14 through 23.
Friday. June 14, through Sunday, June 23
Playcrafters Barn Theatre, 4950 35th Avenue, Moline IL
A Tony Award-winning classic that, according to the New York Telegram, "ranks with Dracula and sometimes sets your spine to as much tingling," author Maxwell Anderson's legendary stage chiller Bad Seed enjoys a June 14 through 23 run at Moline's Playcrafters Barn Theatre, this powerfully creepy entertainment the inspiration for an Oscar-nominated movie and a work shortlisted for the 1955 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
With Anderson's play debuting on Broadway in 1954, Bad Seed focuses on the seemingly perfect little girl Rhoda Penmark, who is able to charm her way into getting just about anything she wants. Anything, that is, except a highly coveted penmanship medal that her teacher has awarded to Claude Daigle, one of Rhoda's classmates. During a school outing near the shore, Claude goes missing, and it's soon discovered that Claude has drowned near a pier. Rhoda's mother Christine begins to suspect that Rhoda had something to do with the boy's death when she finds Claude's penmanship medal hidden in Rhoda's room. Gradually, however, Christine comes to believe that Rhoda was behind other sudden deaths surrounding the family, her suspicions challenging the girl's mother to look into her own past for possible explanations for Rhoda's increasingly frightening behavior.
Directing Bad Seed for Playcrafters is longtime area-theatre favorite Patti Flaherty, whose previous credits for the Barn Theatre include directing The Crucible and Deathtrap, and appearing in such productions as Arsenic & Old Lace, Moon Over Buffalo, and Steel Magnolias. Christine is portrayed by Stephanie Moeller, a veteran of Playcrafters' Proof, The Dixie Swim Club, and Five Women Wearing the Same Dress, with the titular bad seed Rhoda played by Betsy Bergthold, a castmate in the Sotlight Theatre's The Sound of Music. Flaherty's cast also boasts the talents of Storm Marie Baca, Payton Brasher, Andy Curtiss, Jason Day, Don Faust, Jacob Lund, Alice Novak, Julia Sears, and Scott Tunnicliff. Playcrafters regular Shyan DeVoss (The House of Blue Leaves, Witness for the Prosecution) acts as the production's assistant director and stage manager, with additional members of Flaherty's creative team including producer Eric Teeter; lighting and sound designer Jacqueline Cohoon; costumer Bailey Hager; props mistress Ashley Hoskins; technical director Gio Macias; and the set-construction crew of Kethie Burnett, Kendall Burnett, and Craig Cohoon.
Bad Seed runs in Moline from June 14 through 23, with performances Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 3 p.m. Admission is $13-15, and more information and tickets are available by calling (309)762-0330 and visiting Playcrafters.com.
