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'State Fair' on stage next week
Theater officials are hoping for more record crowds later this month when Southwest Nebraska Community Theatre Association presents the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical State Fair. Tickets for the four-performance run went on sale last week and officials expect comparable numbers to last year's record attendance numbers for Damn Yankees. State Fair follows the Frake family as they make their annual late summer pilgrimage to the Iowa State Fair -- but this year the stakes seem to be higher for all four members of the family. For Abel Frake (played by Carl Philo) raising the best pig in the state has always been a goal, but it becomes an obsession when gloomy, cynical neighbor Dave Miller (Howard Kool) bets Abel $5 that Abel's prize boar Blue Boy (played by Jessica Premer) won't win the grand sweepstakes at the fair. Able is assisted on the farm by Gus (Doug Tolle). Melissa Frake (Sheryl Havens) has her sights set on winning the pickle and mincemeat competitions at the fair but to do it she will have to unseat the reigning state pickle and mincemeat queen, the snobbish Mrs. Edwin Metcalf of Pottsville (Cheryl Scott).
Wayne Frake (Bill Longnecker) is all set to have a great time at the fair and plots revenge against the loudmouth Hoop-La barker who embarrassed him a year earlier. At the last minute, Wayne's girlfriend Elanor (to be portrayed three performances by Sara Hageman and once by Shelly Garcia), discovers she can't attend.
Meanwhile, Margy Frake (Jill Hansen) isn't excited about the fair, nor is she excited about her prospects of returning home where longtime boyfriend Harry (Nick Lutz) is applying matrimonial pressure. At the Fair, the Frake family comes in contact with a variety of carnival workers including: Uncle Sam (Connie Wieser), vendors John Havens and Greg Hepp (who are also co-directing the play), a balloon-selling clown (Cheryl Scott), the Astounding Stralenko (Brent Cobb) and his Cooch dancers (Amanda Michael, April Kendall) Vivian (Rachel Hart) and Jeanne (Shawna Bauer); the chief of police (Dan Stramel), his daughter Violet (Joan Ann Blomstedt); and carnival roustabouts Chris Lyons, Garrett Wagner and Dennis Bomstedt At a beer tent near the swine pavilion, Abel is reunited with fellow hog farmers Lem (Russ Ankerson), Clay (Charles Coleman) and Hank Munson (Merlin Brown) as bartender Eddie (Doug Tolle) serves.
Wayne becomes distracted when romance presents itself in the form of the sophisticated singer Emily Arden (Jeri Lynn Karr), and her backup singers, the Fairtones (Ashley Carman, Sarah Wilcox, Michael Garretson, Adam Powers). Margy gets interested in the fair when she keeps running into newspaper reporter Pat Gilbert (Maury Green) and his photographer Charlie (Phil Lyons) Tension mounts for Melissa when her pickles and mincemeat are subject to the culinary rulings of Judge Heppenstahl (Gene Weedin) and his panel of tasters (Dee Premer and Colleen Grant).
Other fairgoers include: Olivia Cappel, Shelly Garcia, Tori Garcia, Kristin Green, Janet Hepp, Alyssa Karr, Carmen Parra, Jaci Saalfield, Megan Skiles, Chandler Wagner and Chelsea Wells.
Many of the cast members have dual roles and sing and dance in the group numbers which include: "Our State Fair (is a Great State Fair)", "It's A Grand Night For Singing" and "All I Owe Ioway."
Tickets for the March 27-30 performances are available at Howard Kool Motors, 201 East B, and Hershberger Music Co., 202 W. First. Prices for the March 27-March 30 performances are $10 for adults and $7 for children age 12 and younger.
All performances will be at the McCook High School Auditorium.