Fantastic start for new season at Rosebud

Times Contributor

 

Winner of the 2007 Samuel French Canadian Playwrights Contest, $38,000 for a Friendly Face, by Ontario playwright Kristin Shepherd kicks off Rosebud Theatre’s 2012 season.  

A wonderfully nutty story, $38,000 For A Friendly Face starts at the Sunshine Chapel in the funeral home of a suburban town where Mrs. Bronwyn Bain has died and her estranged daughters have arrived for her ‘non funeral’. The daughters, Jane Bain (Heather Pattengale) and Annie Bain (Alysa Van Haastert), arrive for their mother’s funeral, not having seen their mother in years. Meanwhile Matt Watson (Nathan Schmidt), the new funeral director is determined to find the ‘good things’ to make this a fitting event. The problem continues to escalate as we discover that Matt has no clue how to create an appropriate celebration of life for a woman that nobody liked. Neither does he know how to deal with the Last Supper Committee, consisting of a group of chatty women responsible for the meals for funeral events. 

The comical events that ensue between the ladies of The Last Supper Committee include a food fight and a few yelling matches balanced between a somber and soulful rendition of “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star by Goth teenager Alison (Jesse Anderson) whom the older women end up taking under their wings.

Many little stories about each of the characters within the main story are what keep the audience delighted. Sometimes it was laughing with tears, and other times tears with no laughter, but rather reminiscent of sadder events that everyone can relate to.

$38,000 for  a Friendly Face plays at the Rosebud Opera House until May 12, 2012. On the new season at Rosebud, Ertman comments, “Our 2012 season is all about stories that hold an unusual grace that emerges from stories rife with conflict, whether it is a precocious Anne in Anne of Green Gables, a painter who is compelled to paint the truth of his family in My Name is Asher Lev, a man and his young protégé facing Lou Gherig’s disease in Tuesdays With Morrie, or a young couple with a miraculous pregnancy problem that defies credibility in May and Joe.” “Our season celebrates grace in the midst of trying people and trying circumstances. Every play in our 2012 season takes us through a story that reveals the shimmering hopeful resilience of characters who choose to live open heartedly, and who change the world around them in the process.”  

For more information about this 2012 season or to get tickets please contact: Rosebud Theatre Season Tickets packages, Gift Certificates and individual tickets are now on sale at Rosebud Theatre, call 1-800-267-7553 to purchase tickets, or for more information visit www.rosebudtheatre.com