Gladys in Wonderland
The Moose Jaw Community Players (MJCP) is inviting the community to their annual Dinner Theatre where they will be performing the comedy, Gladys in Wonderland by Rosemary Frisino Toohey.
The annual Dinner Theatre will see two nights of performance at the Cosmo Senior Center located at 235 3rd Ave NE on November 23-24. Doors will open at 6pm, followed by dinner and theatre.
About Gladys in Wonderland: 87-year-old Gladys’ days of munching donuts and scouring the obituaries seem numbered when Death himself comes knocking on her door one morning. Ready to whisk her off into the great unknown, her cheerful grim reaper is startled by Gladys’ stubborn refusal to expire. In order to push Gladys toward the light, he ushers in a parade of obnoxious friends and relatives who nitpick and whine. He also gives her a taste of nursing home life from an inmate’s point of view. Suddenly, the afterlife doesn’t look so bad...
Jarrod Jeanson who is producing the show this year says it will be a great evening of dining and laughter. Jeanson says the team has a bigger cast this year, compared to the three or four that they usually have. “We read a bunch of different plays and we came up with an idea to do this one. It is not a long play, about 1 hour 30 minutes. It is a larger cast this year because we had so many people auditioned. Over 30 people auditioned this year. It’s a cast of 11, bigger than what we usually have. Traditionally we do a dinner theatre that’s a farce or comedy because we want people to have a nice evening of laughter.”
He added that the annual Dinner Theatre also serves as a fundraiser for the group that goes towards productions for Theatre Saskatchewan festivals. “We’ve been doing this for about nine years and we decided to do one good dinner theatre a year as our fundraiser and then we do a spring production which often takes us to competitions. Our Christmas dinner theatre is really our only major fundraiser for the year. When we fundraise, it is typically so we can go to other festivals. We are a member of Theatre Saskatchewan and they put on two festivals throughout the year. We compete against other communities across Saskatchewan. Often, we create a production for those festivals, so the fundraising helps with those productions.” Barry Dehaven who will play the character Mort, the Angel of Death says the group has been rehearsing since the start of September and is looking forward to a great show. “We started rehearsing at the beginning of September and we’ll be going until November 22 and we’re on stage immediately after that. It will be a great production with lots of laughter.” Crystal Milburn, who is playing Gladys, says the community can look forward to a ‘high-quality’ production. Over the years, the MJCP has won several awards for Moose Jaw. “Last year, we brought home four awards from Theatre Fest: two for performance, one for set and one for best production. So, when people come to our dinner theatre, they are getting a high-quality performance.”
Tickets for the Dinner Theatre are $45 each which includes dinner and the show. There will also be a cash bar. You can get tickets at the Cosmo Senior Center 306-692-6072.