Text size: 
Playcrafters show reveals a family's bond
Posted Online: Nov. 04, 2009, 5:34 pm
Comment on this story |
Print this story | Email this story
By Jonathan Turner, jturner@qconline.com
|
A heartwarming family tale -- closely tied to the holidays -- opens this weekend at Playcrafters Barn Theatre, Moline. "Papa'sAngels: A Christmas Story," a play with music by Collin Wilcox Paxton and Charles Jones, is set in the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina in 1935. Papa Jenkins, known throughout the hills as "Grins," is a man whose guitar playing and singing are known far and wide. When heartbreak devastates his family, his five irrepressible children prepare Christmas-morning surprises that rescue him from despair. "There is some sadness in the play, but it also has joy and happiness," director Tom Morrow of Rock Island said recently. "It's been a fun show. I even tear up a couple of times, though I've seen it so many times in rehearsals. It is hokey, but it's good to do hokey once in a while. I think it's a good show for kids. I think they'll like it." First produced in 1987 and later extensively rewritten, "Papa's Angels" won the Best Play of the Year award at the Grand Olde Players Theatre in Omaha, Neb. A book based on the play was published in 1996 and was made into a television movie in 2000, starring Scott Bakula and Cynthia Nixon. That is how Mr. Morrow saw it. The Midwest Book Review said: "'Papa's Angels' is a rare treasure that reminds us that love can triumph through any experience of sadness and loss, and that the wisdom of a child can redeem the world." Ms. Paxton, the primary author, was also an accomplished actress. Among her roles, she played the poor Southern white girl who falsely accuses a black man of raping her in the 1962 film "To Kill a Mockingbird." She died last month at age 74. Because it has music and five large parts for kids, Mr. Morrow said, "Papa's Angels" is a hard show for community theaters to do. "The actors have to play musical instruments," he noted. There are 10 kids in the show, and Mr. Morrow said he was lucky to have so many good children audition for Playcrafters. "It was really tough to turn kids away,"he said. "We had a lot of talented kids. ... If we had more parts, we could have cast 15 or 20 more parts." John Weigandt of Moline -- who was in "Swinging on a Star" and "Anne of Green Gables" -- stars in his first Playcrafters lead role, as Papa. The cast includes Jean Lupoli, Sydney Crumbleholme, Betsy Zahringer, Izlan Wright, Katie Moore, Morgan Williams, Paul Workman, Jacob Dodd, Alyssa Castro, Michael Baker, Spiro Bruskas, Laila Haley, Sandy Stoltenberg, Dustin Oliver, Andrew Hall and John White. "It's really hard to find good Christmas shows," Mr. Morrow said. "We've got a good one with 'Papa's Angels.' It's corny, but that's kind of what people want at Christmas time. I think it will make a lot of people cry -- not just sad cry, but tears of joy." -- If you go -- What: "Papa's Angels." -- When: Friday through Sunday and Nov. 13-15 at 7:30 p.m., except 3 p.m. Sundays. -- Where: Playcrafters Barn Theatre, 4950 35th Ave., Moline. -- Tickets: $10; call (309) 762-0330 or visit www.playcrafters.com. 
|
|
 |
|
||
New windsor, IL Details |
|||
Tex-Mex Tortilla Soup
(More recipes)
| (More Print Ads) |
|
