Meet the cast and characters of The Hallelujah Girls.
Lance Motta-Vilensky
You may recall, as reported in the November PebbleCreek Post exclusive “A different kind of church going experience,” the provocative group known as PebbleCreek Players Community Theatre was seeking eight nonfictional characters to play eight fictional characters in their spring production of the copious comedy The Hallelujah Girls, penned by the playful playwriting trio of Jessie Jones, Nicholas Hope and Jamie Wooten. Director Lee Vilensky had warned that despite the setting of the play, an abandoned church, this would not be a religious experience. Indeed, the above photo, surreptitiously snapped by the Post’s desert drone, could lead one to believe that the Hallelujah Girls are having prurient thoughts! Nevertheless, Director Vilensky has assured us that this play is not so much about the first syllable in sexagenarian as it is about people of a certain age possessing a lust for life. Think more along the Steel Magnolias, Golden Girls genre.
So exactly which PebbleCreekers were selected to participate in the goings-on in the abandoned church? You can find reference to their nonfictional lives in your PebbleCreek Resource book. Here’s the scoop on who they’ll be on the performance nights of March 11, 12, 13 and 14. They are: Laurie Farquhar as Bunny Sutherland, the self-proclaimed scion of the community, a woman with a smiling face and a scheming mind; Judi Blankenship as Carlene Travis, three times married who may just take a chance with one more man; Shirley Robinson as Mavis Flowers, a likeable lady whose marriage is about as exciting as folding laundry; Steffen Jacobson as Bobby Dwayne Dillahunt, a brawn with a brain and a heart; Neal Weckworth as Porter Padgett, a happy-go-lucky man who still lives with his mother; Barbara Faler as Crystal Hart, a slightly off the wall free spirit who marches to the beat of a drum that only she hears; Pam Engel as Nita Mooney, a dreamer who, when not babying her adult son, spends much of her time living in romance novels; and Carrie Mataraza as Sugar Lee Thompkins, a woman who learns that her past is integral to her bold plans for the future.
The only way you can find out exactly what is going on in this abandoned church is for you to secure a seat in PebbleCreek’s Renaissance Theatre for one of the performance evenings and the only way you can do that is to purchase a ticket! Tickets will go on sale at the Renaissance Theatre on Saturday, February 7 from 8:00 to 10:00 a.m. in the Renaissance Theatre. Should there be any remaining seats after February 7 tickets will be sold at the kiosk in the Eagle’s Nest Clubhouse every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from February 9 through March 9.