Shoestring Theatre

        The Dining Room is a play set in a single dining room. This is a real dining room, by the way, not just a room attached to the kitchen where the table is set up. This is the sort of room in which a long wood table is accompanied by a matching hutch, buffet, and beautifully carved chairs. It's the type of room in which manners are of the utmost importance and the rules of behavior are as uncompromising as the crystal of the water glasses. A. R. Gurney's The Dining Room is a two-act play consisting of eighteen overlapping and unrelated vignettes portraying 57 characters played by 10 actors.

        Whether it be the stern father, played by Ray Wood, chastising his son, played by Boyd Goodall, for mentioning a school teacher's criticism on tardiness or a family's dealing with Mother, played by Paula Keenan, and her Alzheimer's Disease, the stories revolve around the dining room and what it meant to America years ago.

        All the actors are up on their feet with energy abound to show the audience how they can portray multiple characters and not get confused themselves. "It is like having 18 different plays in one night and we change hats throughout the show. Felt strange during rehearsal but as we went along I realized this is so much fun.", says Chris Patterson, who plays a father describing his funeral arrangements in one scene.

        Directed by Darlene Stewart, who runs Story Wagon Children's Theater, this has been fun for her as she has seen what versatility Shoestring players possess. "While I spend my day working with children and have done many children plays, this play has opened my eyes to the endless possibilities that our actors have at their disposal to give these characters life and entertainment. The Dining Room isn't as widely popular as other plays but its strength is that it gives the director and the actors a vehicle that can take them many places in one night. From our standpoint it has given us some hysterical rehearsals and wonderful insight with the actors and me."

        Set from the 1930's to the 1970's, The Dining Room is loaded with reminisce and stories we all can relate to. The maid, played by Brittany Grossman ,trying to move on with her life without ruining a little boy's life, played by Derrick McKinley ,and the couple, played by Andrea and David Finkle, coping with their infidelity and what the future holds for them or the daughter wanting desperately to come back home, played by Kim Crayne or the daughter, played by Alex Finkle, who learns decision making in spite of her mother's wishes. The audience won't leave knowing "whodunit" or find out if the "boy gets the girl" but they will see the "decline of upper middle class America" as seen through the words of A.R. Gurney. Humor, despair, sadness and a sense of reality await all with The Dining Room.

Ticket prices are $18- General, $15- Seniors and $8- Students