Oak Ridge Today

Roane State Playmakers to perform ‘Crimes of the Heart’ beginning April 13

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From left, Roane State students Shelby Stout, Courtney Briley, and Karmen Miller will perform in "Crimes of the Heart." (Submitted photo)

From left, Roane State students Shelby Stout, Courtney Briley, and Karmen Miller will perform in “Crimes of the Heart.” (Submitted photo)

 

By Bob Fowler, Roane State staff writer

The Roane State Playmakers will be presenting a Pulitzer prize-winning play, “Crimes of the Heart,” by Beth Henley, this month at the O’Brien Theatre on Roane State’s Roane County campus.

Director Jon Chemay called the play a “Southern Gothic Drama” in the vein of Tennessee Williams or Harper Lee. He said, “There are some heavy elements to this play, but they are presented with a sense of humor distinct to the southern family.”

The play takes place in the small town of Hazlehurst, Mississippi, where the three Magrath sisters await news about their grandfather, living out his final hours in the local hospital. One sister, unmarried at 30, faces diminishing martial prospects, another has returned home after a failed singing career, and the third sibling is out on bail after shooting her husband in the stomach.

Their troubles, grave and yet, somehow, hilarious, are highlighted by their priggish cousin, by one sister’s old flame, and by the awkward young lawyer who tries to keep the youngest sister out of jail while helpless not to fall in love with her. [Read more…]

See ‘The Odd Couple’ (female version) at Roane State’s Roane County campus

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Roane State Playmakers Shelby Stout as Olive Madison, back, and Courtney Briley as Florence Unger, front, rehearse for upcoming performances of 'The Odd Couple,' Nov. 10-12 and Nov. 17-19, 2017, at the college’s main campus in Harriman. (Photo by Roane State)

Roane State Playmakers Shelby Stout as Olive Madison, back, and Courtney Briley as Florence Unger, front, rehearse for upcoming performances of ‘The Odd Couple,’ Nov. 10-12 and Nov. 17-19, 2017, at the college’s main campus in Harriman. (Photo by Roane State)

 

By Bob Fowler, Roane State staff writer

It’s an update of a classic comedy about a slob and a neat freak living together in disharmony, but this time the characters are female.

It’s Neil Simon’s “The Odd Couple (Female Version),” and the curtain went up on the Roane State Community College Playmakers’ adaptation on Friday, November 10, for a two-week run in the O’Brien Theatre on the college’s main campus in Harriman.

“I’ve been wanting to do a Neil Simon play for a while,” said Jonathan Chemay, Roane State theatre technician, who’s directed three other recent Playmakers productions. “I think (Simon) was a comedic genius.”

Simon’s update of his contemporary classic, about slovenly Oscar Madison and obsessive Felix Unger, was rewritten by the playwright two decades after his original version premiered.

The original Odd Couple featured Felix and Oscar hosting a poker game with four guys as guests. In the female version, Florence and Olive have a get-together with four girlfriends for a night of “Trivial Pursuit.” [Read more…]