Calendar
THE LAKE REGION
FEATURED EVENT
A
lexander City Theatre II will present Neil Simon’s comedy in three acts, Plaza Suite, Sept. 16, 17 and 19 free of charge to the community on the Betty Carol Graham ballroom stage at Central Alabama Community College. Set in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the play features three one-act plays that all take place in the same suite at New York’s Plaza Hotel. The first play, directed by Christale Tuck, stars Alexander City’s Katt Abercrombie and Cedric Holley in the roles of Karen and Sam Nash, an unhappily married couple celebrating their 23rd or 24th wedding anniversary at the Plaza. Karen Nash holds out great hope for the renewal of the marriage until Sam’s secretary/ mistress shows up. In the second play, directed by Keith Garrett, Dr. Doug Roberts plays famous Hollywood producer Jesse Kiplinger, who has invited his old high school sweetheart, Muriel, up to the suite. Muriel, played by Alexander City’s Lila Dostal, does her best to avoid her old boyfriend’s advances and, at the same time, positively swoons over his star-studded life. Denise Graves directs the third and probably best known of the Plaza Suite one-acts, which features Scears Barnes of Alexander City as the father of the
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bride, Roy Hubley, opposite Alexander City’s Ellen Gregg as mother-of-the-bride Norma Hubley. Kendall Sims plays Mimsey, the bride who has locked herself in the bathroom and refuses to come out and get married, with Jackson Gortney as her fiancé, Borden Eisler. Gortney also plays the bellhop in the first act, and Alexander City’s Kenneth Cochran plays the waiter in acts one and two. Show times will be 7 p.m. on Thursday and Friday and 2 p.m. on Sunday. Seating will be arranged in socially distanced groups, and masks are encouraged for audience members. There will be a 10-minute intermission between acts one and two. George C. Scott and Maureen Stapleton played the lead roles in all three acts for Plaza Suite’s presentation by Saint-Subber at the Plymouth Theater in New York City on Feb. 14, 1968. Stapleton was nominated for a Tony Award in the production. Stapleton, Walter Matthau, Carol Burnett and other well-known actors have starred in film versions of the play as well. CACC’s generous sponsorship, along with additional sponsorships and donations, makes it possible for the community to be admitted to the production free of charge.
