Two reprise roles for BTCPA
When local actors and actresses take the stage at the Weatherford Centre April 27-30, it will be to present the Bay Tree Council for the Performing Arts’ final production of the season.
“The Miss Firecracker Contest” fits the BTCPA’s niche as a Southern comedy. The play is directed by Mark Richardson.
Fervent BTCPA supporters might find that the selected production rings a bell, and they aren’t imagining things. The council previously staged this play 15 years ago. Notably, two of the performers from the 2002 performance will reprise their roles.
Scotty Kennedy, an avid BTCPA participant, will repeat his role Delmount, cousin to main character Carnelle Scott, in the story set in the small town of Brookhaven, Miss.
“I’ve been away for awhile, and I’m a little eccentric. I have a few emotional problems,” Kennedy describes his character. “I’ve come back home.”
Kennedy said, with the benefit of a few years of perspective, he thinks he will portray the character a bit differently in his reprisal than he did in the original production. “Reading the part again, I see it a different way after all these years. I understand the part a little better now,” he said.
The story is set a few days before the Fourth of July. Carnelle Scott – known locally as “Miss Hot Tamale” – is rehearsing furiously for the Miss Firecracker Contest, hoping that a victory will salvage her tarnished reputation and allow her to leave town in a blaze of glory. The repeated threat of cousin Delmount, who is recently released from a mental institution, to sell the family homestead and decamp for New Orleans, complicates her plans, as does the unexpected arrival of his sister and her cousin Elain, a former Miss Firecracker winner. Elain will be played by Tina Smith, who also reprises her 2002 role.
“When Scotty said he was going to reprise his role” Smith couldn’t help but agree to also reappear as Elain. “This was the very first play I did with the Bay Tree Council. It brought back a lot of memories.”
For Smith, performing opposite Kennedy evokes a series of memories, from the many times she has acted with him – “I’ve played his sister, his wife, his girlfriend. You name it, I’ve played it with him” – to the fact that “The Miss Firecracker Content” was the first play in which Smith’s brother saw her act. He passed away in December from colon cancer at the age of 48. Playing the sister to Kennedy’s character, “it’s like I’ve got a brother back again,” Smith said.
Kennedy praised playwright Beth Henley for her masterful writing of the play, which first hit the stage in the 1980s. “She touches on a lot of different emotions and different characteristics of each part,” he said. He describes the play as funny but with poignant moments.
“It’s going to be a hilarious play,” Smith agreed. “Mark has directed I-don’t-know-how-many plays at Red Bay, and he knows how far you can take it in a small town … He knows what you can put into it, so he’s added a lot into this one as far as physical comedy goes.”
Performance dates will be April 27-29 at 7 p.m. and April 30 at 2 p.m. at Community Spirit Bank’s Weatherford Centre. Tickets will be $8 each and are on sale now at the Weatherford Centre – go by or call 256-356-9829 between the hours of 2-4 p.m. to purchase or reserve tickets. For group sales, with or without dinner, call 256-356-9286. Dinner is provided with the play on Thursday night for groups.
“It’s a good, clean, good time that people can come out and enjoy,” Smith said.
“I encourage everybody to come out,” Kennedy added. “We anticipate good attendance.”
“The Miss Firecracker Contest” will close out the BTCPA’s 2016-2017 season. Kennedy said the council is now accepting suggestions for productions to stage next season.
