Season 1986-1987

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  Carousel

  Alvin Community College

  Carousel is the second musical by the team of Richard Rodgers (music) and Oscar Hammerstein II (book and lyrics). The 1945 work was adapted from Ferenc Molnár's 1909 play Liliom, transplanting its Budapest setting to the Maine coastline. The story revolves around carousel barker Billy Bigelow, whose romance with millworker Julie Jordan comes at the price of both their jobs. He participates in a robbery to provide for Julie and their unborn child; after it goes tragically wrong, he is given a chance to make things right. A secondary plot line deals with millworker Carrie Pipperidge and her romance with ambitious fisherman Enoch Snow. The show includes the songs "If I Loved You", "June Is Bustin' Out All Over" and "You'll Never Walk Alone". Richard Rodgers later wrote that Carousel was his favorite of all his musicals.

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  Clown's Play: Jack and the Beanstalk

  Alvin Community College

  "Jack and the Beanstalk" read two signs placed at the proscenium on the otherwise bare stage. Clown ushers escort the young people to their seats in anticipation of a performance of the age-old classic. But it's time for the show and the group that was supposed to present the play has phoned to say that their van has broken down and they are not going to make it. The clown ushers gather on stage to decide what to do. Should they send the audience home? With the help of the youngsters, they decide to act out the story themselves using their clown characters as the basis for their improvisation of "Jack and the Beanstalk." Utilizing what they can find backstage, asking for help from the audience when they get stuck, and capitalizing on the unique talents of each of the clowns, they play out the story, discovering thereby the meaning of being a clown.

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  The Farndale Avenue Housing Estate Townswomen's Dramatic Society Murder Mystery

  Alvin Community College

  Every drama group has experienced the horrors of what can go wrong on opening night, and the ladies of the F.A.H.E.T.G. Dramatic Society are no different, with the possible exception that almost everything that could happen does! The scenery collapses, cues are missed, lines forgotten, and the sound effects take on a strange note at times, as the ladies present their ambitious evening's entertainment with the cunning whodunit, "Murder At Checkmate Manor." And just in case the audience should get bored there's a Film and Fashion Show and Murder Mystery Quiz, complete with a Prize! The crunch comes in the denouement when the "murderer", about to be revealed, has to rush home to bandage up an injured daughter. But Mrs. Reece, doyenne of the group, rises above the slings and arrows of outrageous dramatics to save the situation and provide the final inventive twist.

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  The Haunted Through Lounge and Recessed Dining Nook at Farndale Castle

  Alvin Community College

  The problem with reviewing any contribution to the panoply of theatrical endeavours by The Farndale Avenue Housing Estate Townswomen's Guild Dramatic Society is that they are not very good – in fact mediocre would be far beyond their modest, and that is being generous, capabilities.

  It is not just what, by convention, one has to refer to as the acting, which in this case is little more than people wandering on stage, often at the wrong time, and saying things which may or may not be the right lines, but it is also the technicals, which you suspect are operated by descendants of Shakespeare’s rude mechanicals.

  In the TFAHETGDS, as we call them for short, sound effects are on CD, but simple programming, such as pressing track 12 or whatever, is beyond the wit of the technical department, thus we have endless tracks of aircraft, sheep, dogs, poultry and so on before the correct effect booms out. Lighting is sort of on and off, but not necessarily in the right order, and as for the set . . .

  Props are there although not always in the right place or on or indeed off stage at the right time; scenery is . . . well seen, even if not as described, while what passes as acting is either the most overcooked ham, or wooden enough to be an insult to even the most gnarled tree. Lines are missed, or wrong, muddled or said at the wrong time, while entrances and exits and which doorway to use, are all open to negotiation.

  In short their plays are daft, glorious, eccentric fun - theatre at its painful worst with perfomances only worthy of half a star for their valuable role in providing shelter and warmth on a stormy night, but, worth many more for the sheer entertainment value they provide.

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  The Unexpected Guest

  Alvin Community College

  The Unexpected Guest is a suspenseful Agatha Christie play that begins when a traveler, lost in the fog, wanders into a country estate and discovers a man shot dead in his wheelchair. The victim’s wife stands nearby holding a gun, seemingly the obvious culprit, but her calm denial raises immediate doubts. As the police investigate, layers of secrets, grudges, and hidden motives surface within the troubled household. Every character becomes a potential suspect, and shifting alliances keep the audience guessing. True to Christie’s signature style, the play weaves tension and misdirection into a final twist that reframes everything that came before.