Chatham Community Players
Dec. 16-18
Fri. 7:00pm
Sat. 1:30, 4:00 & 7:00pm
Sun. 1:00 & 6:30pm
Venue
Sweet Bee Theater in the Center for the Arts, Pittsboro
18A Salisbury St., Pittsboro, NC 27312
Audition Only–Adults and Children age 8+ were selected for this cast by audition.
This musical is a joint production by the Chatham Community Players and Pittsboro Youth Theater.
Synopsis
The Herdmans are the worst kids in the history of the world–so when they crash Sunday school and demand parts in the Christmas pageant, the whole town panics. There’s not supposed to be biting or cigar-smoking in Bethlehem, and while these kids have never even heard the Christmas story, they definitely have rewrites! Soon everyone is calling for reluctant director Grace Bradley to cancel the whole thing. It’s up to the Bradleys and the Reverend to help their community see the Christmas story and the Herdman kids through new eyes in this buoyant musical adaptation of the funny and touching holiday classic.
Chatham Community Players is a circulating group of talented local volunteer adult actors and actresses who rehearse and perform plays in Sweet Bee Theater, Chatham county's 1 and only public theatre. 100% of proceeds from shows go toward supporting community theater in Pittsboro. Thank you for your patronage and please tell your friends about us.
Please tell your friends about this great show in Pittsboro and support community performance arts!
Chatham Community Players are a circulating group of talented local volunteer adult actors
based in Sweet Bee Theater in Pittsboro.
Script Reading Club
During COVID Chatham Community Players (actors) got together on Zoom to
read scripts together many Sunday afternoons. This may resume if COVID worsens.
• • •
Brighten Your Day
...by listening to the brand-spanking new
Old-Time-Radio-style Comedy and Music show
PBO R&R
produced and posted online by
Pittsboros-own Chatham Community Players.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRq9adQrfsr7YtYDxQFcYsA
This wonderful production is what happens when a crazy bunch of
talented creatives around Pittsboro have way too much time on their hands...
• David Quick Jazz is Special Musical Guest
• Craig Witter updated the 1940s comedy script
• Cast of characters who recorded their parts at home in their closets
....Stephanie Arndt as Sandy
....Mark Anderson as Buddy McGill
....Kevin Smith as the Announcer
....Rachel Horowitz as the Little Girl
For trivia buffs this radio show is kind of a podcast on YouTube. Huh?
Lemme tell you what I mean... this is Episode 1 of "Buddy's Closet" by PBO R&R,
a new spin-off of alumni of the family of arts organizations based in the
Center for the Arts, Pittsboro. Lots of folks have happily crossed
paths with this eccentric group of troupes. But even its founders,
Tammy Matthews and Craig Witter, view its organization chart as an
indecipherable secret.
One thing is for sure, everybody who listens to Episode 1 by PBO R&R
on YouTube wants to subscribe to their YouTube channel ...that is a thing...
and tell their friends to do the same.
Nobody will want to miss Episode 2!
.......................................
PAST PRODUCTIONS
of Chatham Community Players
COVID-SCHMOVID!
WE STARTED THE BRAND SPANKING NEW
Coolest, Darned, Pittsboro Rewritten & Reproduced series of old-time radio, feel-good comedy programs with local musical guests.
by Chatham Community Players acting troupe.
LISTEN to Episode #1 "Buddy's Closet" on Our YouTube CHANNEL!
Old-time Radio Entertainment
by the Chatham Community Players
Rewritten and Reproduced
in Pittsboro
Subscribe to Our YouTube Channel
and click the icon so you don't miss PBO R&R or any of our performance videos
"Barefoot in the Park"
Comedy Play
4pm & 7pm • Sat. & Sun. • Nov. 6 & 7, 2021
at Sweet BeeTheater
REVIEW
With a few productions under its belt, Chatham Community Players--the adult wing of Pittsboro Youth Theatre--reopens its doors with Neil Simon’s 1963 romcom, Barefoot in the Park. The oft-produced classic centers on newlyweds Corie and Paul Bratter as they navigate the first few weeks of wedded bliss (or lack thereof). Cursed with a leaky roof, a lecherous neighbor, and Corie’s dizzy mother Ethel, the hijinks are pure 1960s door-slamming farce and, in most ways, have not aged too poorly.
The second of Neil Simon’s more than 25 plays, Barefoot relies most heavily on zippy dialogue and simple, sitcom-like scenarios (let’s get mom a date, this apartment is too small, the kooky neighbor, etc.). While these aren’t deep waters, director Tammy Matthews takes the plunge and finds some seriousness and pathos beneath the sparkling surface. At times it leans a little too dark but, after all, sexual harassment and a sprinkling of misogyny don’t pack the comedic punch they did in the 1960s. Perhaps it’s the writing, perhaps the performances, but the couple are thoroughly unlikeable and the impending divorce seems a blessing.
As per usual, Craig Witter does a lot with a little, filling the tiny Sweet Bee space with a New York studio apartment, mid- and post-renovation. His large Friends-esque arched window, period stove, four doorways, and split-level layout provide sufficient visual variety and a solid playing space for our quartet. His split view of the brownstone’s main entrance and the Bratters’ apartment is very clever, given the limited space. Post-COVID prop muscles have atrophied (surely temporarily), with a handful of anachronisms and some mid-show shuffling.
Director Tammy Matthews keeps the cast on its toes, avoiding stagnant conversations at all costs, and they navigate the crowded set with well-rehearsed ease. In one of the year’s strongest community theatre performances in this area, Darek Sady shines as the anxious, stubborn Paul. He balances frantic energy and believable groundedness, which keep the play’s lengthy argument scenes engaging. As Corie, a dedicated Hilary Hall is attentive to every word and gesture, but doesn’t yet trust herself to let the text do the leg work. She’s a highly promising actor and, with time and confidence, will surely deliver the more fluid, less operatic performances that she is capable of.
Taufiki E. Lee is memorable as gourmand and pervert extraordinaire Victor Velasco and, in a stunning turn of events, de facto understudy Tammy Matthews steps into the production as the bejeweled, well-pickled Ethel. Matthews’s instincts are razor-sharp and her witty asides are a highlight of this production. We pray for more opportunities to see her perform.
Not as taut and polished as it might have otherwise been, Chatham Community Players has come out of lockdown on its feet with Barefoot in the Park. We’re seeing them stroll with confidence; now let’s see how fast they can run. -- D. K. Britt
•. •. •
"Arsenic and Old Lace"
by American playwright Joseph Kesselring
...a Halloween comedy about one sane man's shaky aim to comprehend and keep his murderously funny family under control one farciful evening.
8 Live Performances in Sweet BeeTheater
• Sat's & Sun's Oct. 26 - Nov. 3, 2019
...Saturdays 4pm & 7pm
...Sundays 2pm & 6pm
in Sweet BeeTheater
18A East Salisbury St., Pittsboro, NC 27312
(Right behind Suntrust bank downtown)
REVIEW
Emerging from its infancy, Chatham Community Players--the adult offshoot of the established Pittsboro Youth Theater--adds to its list of amateur actors and designers with its third major endeavor, Joseph Kesselring’s comedic thriller Arsenic and Old Lace. As the company’s resources grow (collaboration with Cary Players has resulted in extensive scenic improvements) and as new actors emerge, CCP is making some headway.
The Sweet Bee Theater is as petite as it sounds, and technical director Craig Witter has fitted it with a fully-realized parlor reminiscent of your granny’s: doilies, floral patterns, and a bevy of decades-old knick-knacks. Director Tammy Matthews and assistant director Larry Hazelwood deftly stage the play’s farcical antics with a small staircase, multiple exits, and the theatre aisles to maximize space. The production is cohesive, making long strides since last season’s patchier Almost, Maine. Some cleverly-placed music cues highlight the play’s mysterious film noir quality, but some are too melodramatic and overwhelm the comedy.
In her third mainstage turn at CCP, Stephanie Arndt impresses again as the vigorous and flamboyant Teddy, contrasting with the stern, Karloff-inspired Jonathan, played by an amazingly uncanny Jon Woolard--the production’s most apt casting choice. Kevin Smith is much steadier than last season, this time as the blotto Officer O’Hara and the befuddled Mr. Gibbs.
Rachel Horowitz and E.W. Quimbaya-Winship in "Arsenic and Old Lace." Photo by Larry Hazelwood.
The pack is led by a hot-blooded and believable E.W. Quimbaya-Winship as a surprisingly likeable Mortimer Brewster, and the sharp Chanah Silver lands more jokes with facial expressions than any of Aunt Martha’s dialogue.
As with most uber-small community theatres, some are finding their sea legs, with flubbed lines, name switches, and lengthy pauses that dampen the play’s high-octane thrills. Well-intended sound effects are inconsistent, but--like the stage mics--aren’t particularly necessary and overburden the technical team. The production’s befitting costumes, however, never once betray the 1941 setting.
Chatham Community Players should be encouraged, funded, and attended. With few performing arts opportunities in Pittsboro, Tammy Matthews’s ragtag troupe provides an outlet--for both artist and audience--that many Chatham locals crave. -- D.K. Britt
Note: at this performance, the role of Elaine Harper was played by Hilary Hall.
• • •
"The Miss Firecracker Contest" was the summer 2019 production of the Chatham Community Players in
Sweet Bee Theater, the one and only independent live performance theater in Chatham county
Located in the Center for the Arts, Pittsboro (right behind SunTrust bank downtown)
18A East Salisbury St., Pittsboro, NC 27312
"The Miss Firecracker Contest" exploded on Sweet Bee Theater's stage July 5 - 14, 2019. This wack job of a story is a side-splitting look at a dysfunctional Southern family hell-bent on wriggling out of their checkered past - they aim, scheme and blunder their way to proving they're really something by coaching their trashy cousin into winning the beauty pageant at their small Southern town's summer festival.
"The Miss Firecracker Contest" was an absolute must see!
.......................................
Review of "The Miss Firecracker Contest" by Ruth Moose
Here’s how to spend the best two hours of your summer: go see The Miss Firecracker Contest comedy play at Sweet Bee Theater in downtown Pittsboro. Community theater doesn’t get any better than this; dedicated, talented people giving their all. And you will be amazed what Director, Tammy Matthews does in such a cozy space - pure magic. You will marvel, and applaud long, loud and much.
Miss Firecracker has a small but carefully chosen cast who eat up the stage with zest and energy. Rachel Horowitz as Carnelle Scott is more than a handful of sparklers; she’s a whole box of beauty and body. Sharon Camel as Elain is every word perfect in Southernisms. Her dialect is pure music. And boy does she wear her clothes well. She’s joy in a bottle. Delmount, her brother, is as loose and easy in his role as your favorite pair of well-loved jeans. Easy breezy, it is like he is not acting. He just IS Delmount from head to toe.
Firecracker is Southern to the core. If you don’t have a smidgeon of grits or pimento cheese in your DNA, inject this fine comedy play into your schedule. Sweet Bee Theater only seats 75 and when word gets out Miss Firecracker should be standing room only. The last 4 performances are this weekend: July 12th at 7pm, 13that 2 and 7pm, and there’s a Sunday matinee at 4PM on July 14, 2019. Don’t miss this comedy play.
• • •
In their second production, the Chatham Community Players performed John Cariani’s exploration of arctic romance, “Almost, Maine”, for 8 performances at the Sweet Bee Theater in Pittsboro, NC.
On a Friday night in deepest winter, all is not quite what it seems in the remote, mythical town of Almost, Maine(so far north it’s almost in Canada). As the northern lights hover magically overhead, the town’s residents are falling in and out of love in unexpected and often hilarious ways. Bodies are getting bruised and hearts are getting broken over the course of nine self-contained stories. But the bruises heal and hearts mend – almost – in this delightful midwinter night’s dream. As each scene begins, those in the audience are likely to relate to many of the situations in which the characters find themselves: trying to move on after a loved one passes, running into an ex unexpectedly or realizing that perhaps your best friend could be something more. In Almost, Maine, ordinary folks encounter the magic of love in all its permutations.
While the Sweet Bee Theater has been the home of the Pittsboro Youth Theater for nearly two years. “Almost, Maine”is the second production of the newly formed adult theater troupe, the Chatham Community Players. Composed entirely of local talent, the cast of 17 inhabit 19 different characters living in Almost, Maine.
“Almost, Maine”performances run from November 2 - 11, 2018 - Fridays (7pm), Saturdays (7pm) and Sundays (2 and 7pm). Tickets, priced at $10 each, can be purchased online at www.pittsboroyouththeater.com or at the door while they last. Sweet Bee Theater is located in the new Center for the Arts in the heart of downtown (behind SunTrust bank) at 18A East Salisbury St., Pittsboro, NC.
Sweet Bee Theater in the Center for the Arts, Pittsboro
Office: (919) 533-6997
Physical Address: CFTA, 18A East Salisbury St., Pittsboro, NC 27312 (Behind Suntrust bank)
• • •
Our Summer 2018 Smash Hit Production
Comments on our Facebook page about
Our Summer 2018 Smash Hit Production
SteelMagnolias
"What a great job! I was there Friday night and the talent is amazing! Tempted to come again!"
"The talented cast and crew present a vibrant and moving experience of community and friendship. In times like these, it's such a welcome treat! Do try to catch it before it closes on Sunday."
"Good performance in a small theater. Will go to their next play."
"Was one of the best plays I've been to!"
"So great to have live theater in Pittsboro -- it's a wonderful show!"
"Really enjoyed the performance Saturday. Will definely will go to the next play."
Read how cast members describe their experience on the "Performing Arts" page of "Chatham Life and Style" website.
