You can tell it’s spring in Chenango County by the plethora of happenings that fill our calendars this weekend. At the first sign of promising good weather, local events start popping up in droves. This weekend, the first in May, is a particularly busy one, sure to offer something for everyone.
You can go for a run with the Allegro race, get your family into healthy habits with Chenango on the Move, peruse local artists’ wares at the spring craft show, go to a prom (one for adults, one for kids), or do what I did last night – cap off a day’s worth of activities by enjoying a high school theater production.
The kids in the Sherburne-Earlville Drama Club, under the expert direction of Colleen Law-Tefft, are staging “You Can’t Take It With You” tonight and Saturday at 7 p.m. in the S-E auditorium. Depending on which night you go, it’s either the perfect start, or the perfect finish to a jam-packed Chenango County Saturday.
I don’t think anything fits the description “screwball comedy” better than “You Can’t Take It With You,” a classic drawing-room farce by Moss Hart and George Kaufman. Set in New York City in the mid-1930s, the play centers around a young couple, Alice Sycamore (Ellen Fagan) and Tony Kirby (Joe Mettler), who fall in love and face the challenge of blending their two decidedly different families. Tony’s parents, played by Mark Wessing and Stephanie Joyce, are stiff upper-crust Wall Street types and Alice’s family ... well, there’s a cast of unusual characters. The play takes place entirely in the Sycamore family’s living room, which ends up more like the day room of a mental hospital. Alice’s mother, Penny (Justine Cameron) is a frustrated playwright who’s never actually finished a play; her father Paul (Chris Dushko) makes fireworks in the basement; sister Essie (Brenda Hoefler) is a talent-deprived ballet dancer; and grandfather Martin (Adrian Enscoe) quit his job 35 years ago and hasn’t done much since. Throw in some weird in-laws, servants and neighborhood freaks, and you can see why Alice is hesitant to allow Tony into her world.
