Published: October 26, 2007 08:58 pm      

Woody Allen’s humor comes to Danville

Red Mask to present ‘60s-era comedy

DANVILLE — A Woody Allen play, later made into two different movies, comes to the Kathryn Randolph Theater in November.

The Red Mask Players begin their 2007-08 season with the 1960s-era comedy “Don’t Drink the Water.” The cast combines new members with veterans such as Ed Devore.

Devore described the play as, “the old Woody Allen. It’s simple humor and good fun.

“I play my part for laughs,” Devore said about his character, Father Drobney. “I’m kind of a Guido Sarducci-type, complete with an Italian accent.

“I’m also a coward, hiding from the communists, and a wannabe magician. But it’s a small part — that’s all my work schedule can accommodate.”

Devore’s resume includes more than 40 parts with various community theater groups and perhaps as many roles behind the scenes of local productions. His expertise has proven invaluable to at least one of the less experienced members of the cast.

Jeredith Wallace plays the teenage daughter of an American family stranded in a U.S. embassy behind the Iron Curtain. Her character falls in love with the ambassador’s son, played by Ken Cooper. The script calls for a little more than flirtation between the two.

“Ed has helped me a lot,” Wallace said, “especially with the kissing scene I have with Kenny.

“I didn’t know him (Devore) before, but he’s been very patient with me. He did it in a way that wasn’t bossy.”

Wallace feels an even stronger connection with another cast member, Judie Barrett, who plays her mother. In real life, the older woman is her grandmother.

“Jeredith always wanted us to do a show together,” Barrett said. “I’ve been in just one play before, (Red Mask’s) ‘Cemetery Club.’”

Barrett said she gets some of the humor in the play better than her granddaughter and some others in the cast.

“There are lots of references to the Cold War that I can relate to,” she said. “I grew up in the ‘60s.”

Barrett remembers the clothes from the era well. She described her costume for the play as “very Jackie Kennedy, between the dress and the pillbox hat.”

She described her relationship with her onstage husband as “a June Cleaver-type married to an Archie Bunker.”

Rick Prentice, who plays her husband in the show, agreed some of the references in the script were lost on him.

“I have a line about Walter Lippmann,” Prentice said. “I had no idea who he was. But in every show you do, there are things you don’t get. People in the audience will get them, though.”

Debbie Prentice, Rick’s wife and the play’s director, believes in her cast. She has co-directed in the past two shows for Red Mask Children’s Theater.

“The characters play off each other well,” she said.

“You wouldn’t know Judie had only three lines in her other show,” Debbie said. “She’s very natural on stage.”

Prentice also praised stage manager Gail Garner. “He’s what I call my right hand man,” she said. “He sees things I’m only beginning to learn.”



IF YOU GO

Red Mask Players presents “Don’t Drink the Water” at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays on Nov. 2-4, 9-11 and 16-17 at the Kathryn Randolph Theater, 601 N. Vermilion St.

Admission is $15 for adults, $12 for seniors (60+) and $10 for full-time students. Box office hours will be from 7 to 9 p.m. Sunday to Nov. 1 or call for reservations at 442-5858.