BTCPA brings farce ‘Rumors’ to stage
RED BAY — The Bay Tree Council for the Performing Arts is presenting Neil Simon’s farce “Rumors” this week at the Weatherford Centre.
Remaining performances run Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m.
The show marks the second production of the council’s 2025–26 season.
Scotty Kennedy, a local photographer and curator of the Red Bay Museum, directs the show. He has been involved with the Bay Tree Council for the Performing Arts since it began.
He also plays psychiatrist Ernie Cusack, the husband of Cookie Cusack.
For Tina Smith, the show marks both a return to a familiar script and a milestone with the Bay Tree Council for the Performing Arts. Smith plays Cookie Cusack, one half of one of the show’s married couples.
“Cusack is a dramatic personality with garish fashion, and I do some physical comedy,” Smith said.
She said the timing of the production feels right and that the cast has come together well.
“I think the world right now could use some laughter medicine,” she said. “We have a very good cast and actors.”
The show marks Smith’s 40th performance with the Bay Tree Council for the Performing Arts.
Brittany Faris plays Chris Gorman, one of the first characters to arrive at the dinner party that sets the story in motion. She said the role carries an added personal connection because her husband plays Ken Gorman. She said the production’s setting also gives her a chance to lean into the show’s formal style.
“I’m also looking forward to getting the chance to dress up in elegance,” she said. “My character is very anxious and uptight as she and her husband are trying to keep the others from figuring out what has happened,” Faris said. “This has been a good cast to work with, and we all get along well. Everybody has filled their roles well. I think people will enjoy hearing all the rumors and mayhem that ensues.”
Adrienne Pearson plays Cassie Cooper, who arrives at the party with her husband, Glen Cooper, as the evening’s misunderstandings continue to build. “In the script, she is labeled a trophy wife,” Pearson said. “She’s a pretty funny character.”
Pearson said Cassie’s husband is running for state Senate and that much of the story centers on how relationships shift as rumors spread among the group.
“So, we’re trying to navigate an evening dinner, and we arrive at a dinner party where I am most annoyed at my husband, for all of these reasons,” she said. “So, yeah, angry wife.”
Pearson said she hopes audiences leave entertained.
“I hope they feel entertained. I hope they laugh, and I hope they just enjoy themselves,” she said. “I hope they just have fun and see the fun that we had putting it on.”
Austin Henderson plays Glen Cooper.
“He’s pretty exasperated from the amount of arguing he has to do with his wife,” Henderson said. “In the beginning, they do say that he is a weasel for trying to get out of protecting Mr. Brock.”
The play opens with Chris and Ken Gorman arriving at a dinner party for their friend Charley Brock, a deputy mayor in New York City. They quickly discover Charley had an accident involving a shotgun and his earlobe and that the situation could become a scandal.
As more guests arrive, the couple tries to keep what happened from coming to light. The effort sets off a chain of misunderstandings and increasingly tangled explanations.
Other cast members are Eric Faris, Morgan Miller, Theron Struzik, Nicolas Stepp nd Sophie Rea. Anna Lindsey is the stage manager. Dominick Rogers is handling the sound and lights.
