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Fiddler production: 'meager budget, incredible creative resources'
"The theater has a very meager budget but incredible creative resources," Price, assistant director said. "The entire cast is one of the most enthusiastic groups of people I've ever had the pleasure of working with!" said Billy Creel, who plays the lead role of Tevye. The Play, of course, is Fiddler of the Roof, scheduled for performances April 3-6 at the Playhouse on North Alexander Avenue. Navy veteran, preacher, bluegrass musician, and cycle enthusiast Skip Padgett brings to the role of Avram, the bookseller, an interpretation such as the stage has never seen, according to director Stan Coe. "His banter back and forth, one scene after another with his counterpart, the innkeeper (played by another military veteran, actor and preacher, Jim Newsome) is amazing! Watching the two of them arguing whether the horse Avram bought from the innkeeper was actually a mule is worth the price of admission!" A special delight for everyone in the cast is watching the three oldest daughters, played by veteran actresses Anne Schifner, Genevieve Coe, and Emma Collins, as they wonder and fret over their fates at the reckoning of the matchmaker, played by Rilla Spellman. The girls sing, dance and eventually fall in love with suitors "not" arranged by Yente, the matchmaker. "It is such a pleasure to work with these youg ladies," Coe says. "They have the acting experience and intuitive sense of how their respective characters should be portrayed. A little bit of stage direction goes a long way with them. They each take what you tell them and give back exactly the delivery you're looking for. They just know what to do. All of three of them are poetry in motion!" Jacob Davis, also no stranger to WLTCo., is again a dynamic presence on stage. "He has a way of understatement that always seems to fit the portrayal. His character, an outsider to the Jewish community, is shy, yet not afraid to pursue what he wants (Chave, the third of Tevye's daughters). "He portrays the character so well I sometimes wonder if he's acting," Coe laughed. Ian Coe cannot help but stand out as The Fiddler and bottle dancer. "It is hard to hide a walking tree!" his sister is apt to say. But his lanky frame shimmers from roof-top to wedding scene and across the stage with the kind of finesse that years of training in WLTCo. and the Suzuki Strings of Augusta, has taught him to do well. "I'm just glad to be part of this play. I love the story. It's great to work with my dad as the director and to have the whole family in a play together in my senior year of high school. And it is really an honor, as a musician, to even attempt to play the music that the great Isaac Stern played for the motion picture version. Working through the dance number with Mrs. Cynthia Altman has been a fun, though challenging experience. Mrs. Sherri Bowers is such a versatile pianist to be able to arrange these tricky musical pieces with me," Ian said. Joe Grimes, all 3½ years old of him, seems to have a natural feel for the stage. "You just have to tell him where to sit and what to do and he often comes up with an ad lib during rehersal that steals the show," a fellow actor was heard to say. "It is an amazing assembly of cast and crew who are preparing a performance you'll long remember," the director said. Mark your calendar to experience Fiddler on the Roof April 3-6 at the Bolton Lunceford Playhouse. For reservations call 706-678-9582.
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