2008 Season

“Dearly Departed” by David Bottrell and Jessie Jones
Performances: April 18, 19, 20, 25 and 26
Lyle B. Fales, Director

The Players then take the main stage with the spring play, a real hoot of a comedy, Dearly Departed, by David Bottrell and Jessie Jones. This one is guaranteed to chase away your lingering winter blues and leave you laughing. Performances are planned for April 18, 19, 20, 25 and 26 at the Greenville Area Community Center. Lyle B. Fales directs.

In the Baptist backwoods of the Bible Belt, the beleaguered Turpin family proves that living and dying in the South are seldom tidy and always hilarious. A black comedy, Dearly Departed revolves around the death of the patriarch of a poor Southern family. The struggle to get him buried involves the whole family, including the not-so-grieving widow who wants to put “Mean and Surly” on the tombstone.

Despite their earnest efforts to pull themselves together for their father's funeral, the Turpin's other problems keep overshadowing the solemn occasion. Amidst the chaos, the family turns for comfort to their friends and neighbors, an eccentric community of misfits who just manage to pull together and help each other through their hours of need, and finally, the funeral.

“Assassins” book by John Weidman and music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Performances: July 18, 19, 20, 24, 25 and 26
Carolyn Johnson, Director

The powerful and clever musical, Assassins, will be the FRCP summer offering. With a book by John Weidman and music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, Assassins may well be just the ticket to beat the Presidential campaign blues we’ll all be feeling in earnest by then. Performances are set for July 18, 19, 20, 24, 25 and 26 at the GACC. Carolyn Johnson will direct.

This most American of musicals opens up the lives of nine individuals who assassinated or tried to assassinate the President of the United States. From John Wilkes Booth to Lee Harvey Oswald, Sondheim and Weidman have bent the rules of time and space so that assassins and would-be assassins from different historical periods meet, interact and inspire each other to harrowing acts in the name of the American Dream.

Assassins contains some of the finest scene writing in recent memory as well as a brilliant, melodic score of American music throughout the ages, from folk to ragtime to 1970s soft rock. Bold, original, surreal, disturbing, thought-provoking and alarmingly funny, Assassins is perhaps the most controversial musical ever written.


Press Release:
GREENVILLE --- “Everybody’s got the right to be happy. Don’t stay mad, life’s not as bad as it seems. If you keep your goal in sight, you can climb to any height. Everybody’s got the right to their dreams.” So begins the opening number of the musical, “Assassins,” this summer’s production by local theatre group the Flat River Community Players.

Inspired by real events, Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman’s musical, “Assassins,” examines the lives and motives of America’s most notorious criminals - those men and women throughout our history who either assassinated or attempted to assassinate a President of the United States.

Bold, original, surreal, thought-provoking, and alarmingly funny, this most American of musicals examines the lives and motives of nine presidential assassins in an historical “revusical” that explores the dark side of life in the USA. From John Wilkes Booth to Lee Harvey Oswald, the rules of time and space bend, taking the audience on a wild rollercoaster ride in which assassins from different eras meet, interact, and inspire each other to harrowing acts, all in the name of the American Dream. The main thing they have in common is the realization that there is another side to the Dream, and they embrace it not so much because they have turned away from its ideals, but because they have been rejected by it. This, then, leads them to their dark, diabolical purpose.

Director Carolyn Johnson and Music Director Mark Dombroske have assembled a note-worthy cast for “Assassins.” Appearing as the “pioneer,” John Wilkes Booth, is Tim Addis. Garfield’s assassin, Charles Guiteau, is being played by Justin Kilduff, and Scott Wahlfeldt plays Leon Czolgosz, the laborer who killed McKinley. Ryan Garlick appears as Guiseppe Zangara, whose shots at FDR succeeded instead in killing the Mayor of Chicago, Anton Cermak. Nick Whyatt, a newcomer to the FRCP, plays the infamous Lee Harvey Oswald. Ric Devon Davenport is cast as Sam Byck, who hijacked an airliner intent on crashing it into the White House to kill then-President Nixon. Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme and Sara Jane Moore, both unsuccessful in their attempts to shoot Gerald Ford, are played by Amanda Wagner and Deb Dieckman, respectively. Rounding out the bunch is Tim Schmidt as John Hinckley, who shot Ronald Reagan in an effort to gain the attention of actress Jodie Foster.

Also featured in the production is Lindsay Tallian as the Balladeer, a folksinger who helps explain the various assassins’ storylines while also admonishing their choices in song. Jordan Wylie as the Proprietor, portrays an evil carnival barker who goads the assassins and urges them on toward their bloody deeds.

A busy chorus completes the cast. Steven Barkley, Sandy Cote, JD Doolittle, Patrick Fuller, Alexandria & Alivia Gilbertson, Jessica and Matt Gilbertson, Brittany Jager, Larry Moss, and Chris Stander all play multiple roles ranging from townspeople and bystanders to Presidents Garfield and Ford to Moore’s young son, Billy, to turn-of-the-century anarchist Emma Goldman Booth’s accomplice, David Herold, and others.
Despite its historical genre, “Assassins” contains relevant ideas and questions that should prompt us to make comparisons to American society in 2008. It’s about how we interpret ambition and success, marginalize and even ostracize outsiders, and as a result, sometimes create the very monsters that plague us. But, Sondheim and Weidman encourage us to see the Assassins as flukes, freaks, misfits, and left-wing lunatics who, for all their hopes and dreams, accomplished nothing. Through “Assassins,” they address the all-too-human problem of being loved, appreciated, and noticed if you are an outsider or different from what people find appropriate or “normal.” The assassins’ answer to this raw need for acceptance is to grab power over a person and then kill him. The result: you die, still unsatisfied and villified.

The music in the show varies to reflect the popular musical styles of the eras depicted. Such forms as Civil War ballads, folk songs, spirituals, barbershop quartets, Sousa marches, society waltzes, Broadway showtunes, and soft rock hits are turned inside-out to help explore the deeper recesses of the American psyche in this black musical comedy.

A talented production staff is working with Johnson and Dombroske on “Assassins.” Karin Wahlfeldt serves as Stage Manager, with Lila King as House Manager. Jessica Gilbertson heads up a costume team consisting of Kelly Lucas, Brittany Jager, Sandy Cote, Trish Lindeman, and Ellen Thompson. Steve King will head up construction on a set designed by Johnson, and will also set lights designed by Charlie Pennebaker. Tim Schmidt will handle the sound design, and Pat Barnhart leads the prop team of Jane LaLonde and Leonard Cradit. Raven Hahler and Janice Vandenberg will run the lights and sound.

“Assassins” opens on July 18 at 8:00 PM, with additional evening performances on July 19, 24, 25, and 26. A matinee on July 20 begins at 2:00 PM. Tickets are now on sale; adults $12, students 18 and under $10, and seniors 60 and over $10. This production contains adult language and is not appropriate for young children. Call 616-754-8207 to purchase over the phone using a VISA or Mastercard, or stop by the Greenville Area Community Center in person during regular, weekday business hours.

“A Christmas Story” adaptation by Philip Grecian
Performances: November 28, 29, 30, December 5 and 6
Steve King, Director

Come late fall, we’ll all be ready for a live dose of one of the most beloved holiday stories of all time, A Christmas Story. Adapted for the stage by Philip Grecian, this nostalgic side-splitter is based on the motion picture by Jean Shepherd and others, and holds up to the screen version extremely well.

Humorist Jean Shepherd's memoir of growing up in the midwest in the 1940s follows nine-year-old Ralphie Parker in his quest to get a genuine Red Ryder BB gun under the tree for Christmas. Ralphie pleads his case before his mother, his teacher and even Santa Claus himself, at Goldblatt's Department Store, but all respond with, "You'll shoot your eye out."

All the elements from the marvelous motion picture are here, including the family's temperamental exploding furnace; Scut Farkas, the school bully; the boys' experiment with a wet tongue on a cold lamppost; the Little Orphan Annie decoder pin; Ralphie's father winning a lamp shaped like a woman's leg in a net stocking; Ralphie's fantasy scenarios, and more.

A Christmas Story is funny and heart-warming, perfect family fare for the holiday season. Watch for it onstage at the Community Center November 28, 29, 30, December 5 and 6. Steve King will direct.

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FRCP Box Office: (616) 754-8207
House Policies:

1) Experts say most babies cry to stay at home. We support these precious babies by enforcing a No-Babes-in-Arms policy for the theater.
2) The use of cameras or recording devices is strictly prohibited.
3) Food and drinks are not permitted in the auditorium.
4) Please disconnect electronic signals on watches and pagers before the start of the performance. Doctors or others with the need for emergency contact may leave their name, seat location, and pager with the House Manager.
5) The Greenville Community Center is a smoke-free facility. Smoking is prohibited anywhere inside the building and on any sidewalk leading to an entry of the building.
FRCP - P.O. Box 284 - Greenville, MI 48838