The Joy of Life singers join the cast of Dearly Departed November 8-12 in the San Tan Ballroom at Cottonwood. The singers are front row: Marilyn Holt, Tenni Annen, Sharon Guzman, Andrea Pearson and Director Chris Roen; back row: Jim Nielsen, Steve Schneck and Janine Schneck; not pictured: Jim Brown, Judie Janowski, and Susan Schlesinger.
Andrea Hummel
For the November 8-12 SLCT play, Dearly Departed, Director Howard Hummel has pulled out all the stops.
If you regularly attend Sun Lakes Community Theatre plays, you know to expect a bit of reasonably priced theater close to home, many times featuring your friends and neighbors on stage. You also know that the theater setting in the San Tan Ballroom in Cottonwood is a great place to enjoy quality plays.
In November, though, when you see Dearly Departed, SLCT’s fall offering, be warned: you ain’t seen nothing yet!
To start with, you’ll meet the Joy of Life Singers, a fantastic little group under the direction of Chris Roen. You’ll meet these Gospel singers when they’re featured in the play on the Reverend B. H. Hooker’s radio show. They will also entertain before the show and at intermission.
In their real lives, the singers in the Joy of Life group have an amazing list of musical experience. They have sung in barbershop groups, for church choirs and in musical theater. Most of them have been singing since they were children, many with family members, and some have performed in venues as far away as London.
You’ll also meet some of the funniest characters to appear on a Sun Lakes stage and even though it’s the somber occasion of a funeral that brings them all together, the beleaguered Turpin family proves that living and dying in the backwoods of the Bible belt is seldom tidy and always hilarious.
Tickets for the show are $16 and will be sold October 8 at the Cottonwood Open House and all other Sun Lakes Open Houses (check dates). Tickets will also be sold every Wednesday from October 12-November 2 in the Saguaro Room at Cottonwood and every Thursday from October 13- November 3 in the Oakwood lobby. Both locations will be selling tickets from 10:00 a.m.-1:00. Tickets are also available online at slctinfo.org. For more information call 480-382-6290.
The first performance on November 8 will be at 2:00 p.m. to allow patrons the evening free to watch the election returns. All other performances will be at 7:00 p.m.