Gettysburg Community Theatre changes pace with the season in its lighthearted production of Brian D. Taylor’s “The Dummest Play Ever”— an oxymoronic sketch comedy presented as the community theater’s senior production.
Published by Pioneer Drama Service, the humorous show has been performed in schools and community theaters across the United States and Canada. It is a fitting choice to be performed by GCT’s sprightly senior cast, seasoned actors who hold and use their scripts hoping to encourage other seniors in the audience to join the onstage fun in future shows.
And the fun is unmistakably shared in this production, both on and offstage, through skits designed to tickle everyone’s sense of goofy humor with dialogue that rivals dad jokes on steroids.
Under the direction of veteran actress Cookie Driscoll making her GCT directorial debut, “The Dummest Play Ever” is well staged and evenly paced with consistent comic timing.
The time is in the present; the setting is “wherever dumb things happen.” GCT’s black interior stage area easily accommodates swift locale changes with simple but aesthetic set pieces and props, and the characters switch their identities easily.
A charming cast — Leslie Casteel, Roger Dalrymple, Jim Derby, Sharon Kaya, Jeff Leinbach, Sue McCleaf Nespeca, Mary Miner, James O’Dell, Edward Riggs, Stephanie Roelker, Barbara Semiatin, and Cyd Tokar — are all “young at heart” performers with solid stage experience and presence.
In the Introduction, Leinbach as the self-referential playwright mimics stand-up comedy in a monologue that breaks the fourth wall by addressing the audience directly. He asks if the play’s title isn’t the “worst ever” and admits to misspelling “dumbest” on purpose. Miner (as the confrontational stage manager character) makes a provocative antagonist, and their banter starts the laughter rolling.
And roll it does, through a mashup of well-rehearsed scenes stage-managed by Brenda Walter, with props coordinated by Leinbach and Tokar, and lights and sound operated by Sophia DeMartino and Kyle Meisner.
The first half of the show — filled with skits that introduce all of the cast members and give each character moments in the spotlight — flies.
In Blind Date, Tokar’s coquettish performance is spot on as Mackenzie to Dalrymple’s believable and slightly flustered Maitre D’.
Kaya is also very funny, both as the clueless bank teller (The Hold Up) and as an unfathomable yogi in a later scene.
Semiatin, Dalrymple, Derby, Casteel, Riggs, Tokar, and Roelker create easy comic chemistry as the home-gating team dressed in Ravens and Eagles jerseys. Their out-of-sequence scenes together (one before and one after Intermission) are the only ones that feature repeat roles (Artificial Intelligence Part One, CLAIRE and Artificial Intelligence, Part Two, SMALT).
Nespeca and O’Dell appear wonderfully dimwitted as contestants in What’s That Line, and Miner, Riggs and Semiatin are a riot in Couple’s Therapy.
Every actor brings good energy to this solid ensemble production.
Opening Night felt like a friendly community party where everyone — including the actors and production team — had a great time.
The show’s standouts cross the board (even Driscoll and Walter appear onstage briefly), and include the Gettysburg Community Theatre itself, which aims to “instill a love of the theatre arts in people of ALL ages and abilities through quality education and performance.” (In December, GCT will present a kids’ production of “Disney’s Alice In Wonderland, Jr.”)
“The Dummest Play Ever” is for anyone who loves to laugh out loud — kids will relish the silliness and perhaps see a new side to Grandma or Grandpa, seniors may get bitten by the acting bug, and deep thinkers will appreciate underlying themes exploring the nature of intelligence and human foolishness.
At show’s end, GCT has added its own touch — a hilarious spoof honoring the memory of musician Brian Wilson (who passed away in June) — in a brilliantly conceived and choreographed surprise performed to the Beach Boys’ song, “I Get Around.”
And it is a doozy.
In the program, GCT invites everyone to sing and dance along with the finale. Driscoll writes that she hopes “the audience will leave after the show with a happy heart and a smile to light the way!”
Once they stop laughing, most audience members should leave smiling. Some may leave wondering just how smart Artificial Intelligence really is, why people tend to mindlessly do what they’re told, what makes outlandish ideas trailblazing, and what the definition of absolute truth is really.
Others may simply bask in the lingering euphoria of experiencing a terribly good time.
“The Dummest Play Ever” continues through September 14 at Gettysburg Community Theatre, 49 York Street. Performances are 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays and 7 p.m. Fridays. General admission is $20 ($22.95 with fees). To purchase tickets and for more information about a variety of upcoming shows, visit gettysburgcommunitytheatre.org.
Photo courtesy of Linda Toki.
Other credits include costumes by the Cast; Brenda Walter assist directed.
