Friday, June 14, through Sunday, June 16
Playcrafters Barn Theatre, 4950 35th Avenue, Moline IL
Described by the New York Post as “an irreverent and funny looks at the intricacies of friendship” and by the New York Daily News as “a fresh-as-a-daisy comedy, funny as can be,” Five Women Wearing the Same Dress serves as the latest presentation in the Playcrafters Barn Theatre's Barn Owl Series of one-weekend runs, its June 14 through 16 presentation boasting memorable characters and what TheatreWeek deemed “dialogue that ricochets snappily around the stage.”
During an ostentatious wedding reception at a Knoxville, Tennessee, estate, five reluctant, identically clad bridesmaids hide out in an upstairs bedroom in Five Women Wearing the Same Dress – each one with her own reason to avoid the downstairs proceedings. They are Frances, a painfully sweet but sheltered fundamentalist; Mindy, the cheerful, wisecracking lesbian sister of the groom; Georgeanne, whose heartbreak over her own failed marriage triggers outrageous behavior; Meredith, the bride's younger sister, whose precocious rebelliousness masks a dark secret; and Trisha, a jaded beauty whose die-hard cynicism about men is called into question when she meets Tripp, a charming bad-boy usher to whom there is more than meets the eye. As the afternoon wears on, these five very different women joyously discover a common bond in this wickedly funny, irreverent, and touching celebration of the women's spirit that the New York Post called “a wonderfully entertaining play.”
Written by Alan Ball, an Oscar winner for American Beauty and an Emmy winner for Six Feet Under, Playcrafters' production of Five Women Wearing the Same Dress is being directed by Cynthia Smysor, a veteran instructor at Davenport Junior Theatre who also serves as President of Playcrafters' Board of Directors. A quintet of Playcrafters veterans play Smysor's bridesmaids: Emmalee Hilburn (The Laramie Project), Mattie Gelaude (The Crucible), Jazmin Mendez-Barradas (A Wrinkle in Time), Stephanie Moeller (Proof), and Elle Winchester (Proposals). And Payton Brasher plays bad-boy Tripp in his Playcrafters debut, the actors recent area credits including roles in the Prenzie Players' Henry VIII: All Is True and Quad City Music Guild's Jesus Christ Superstar.
Five Women Wearing the Same Dress will be presented June 14 through 16, with its Friday and Saturday performances at 7:30 p.m. and its Sunday show at 3 p.m. Tickets are $5-8, and more information and reservations are available by calling (309)762-0330 or visiting Playcrafters.com.
