That laughter-filled, traditional beginning to the Christmas season in Kamsack, known as the annual Kamsack Players’ dinner theatre, continues this year with Drinking Habits.
“Accusations, mistaken identities and romances run wild in…a laugh-out-loud farce,” says the synopsis to the two-act play being staged by the Players at the OCC Hall on December 8 and 9.
“Two nuns at the Sisters of Perpetual Sewing have been secretly making wine to keep the convent’s doors open, but Paul and Sally, reporters and former fiancées, are hot on their trail,” the synopsis says. “They go undercover as a nun and priest, but their presence, combined with the addition of a new nun, spurs paranoia throughout the convent that spies have been sent from Rome to shut them down.
“Wine and secrets are inevitably spilled as everyone tries to preserve the convent and reconnect with lost loves.”
In the cast of Drinking Habits by Tom Smith are eight seasoned members of the Players, said Jack Koreluik, who is the director.
Zennovia Duch and Nicole Larson are two nuns, Sister Philamena and Sister Augusta, while Ellen Amundsen-Case will portray the Mother Superior and Tanya Riabko is Sister Mary Catherine, a nun-trainee.
Adrian Hovrisko is George, a groundskeeper; James Perry (Paul) and Beth Dix (Sally) are news reporters, and Kevin Sprong is portraying Father Chenille, a priest.
The action of the play takes place inside a convent, so the setting is rather austere, decorated with only a table and chairs, but it has five doors, Koreluik said, adding that the play demands a lot of comedic timing with characters rapidly going in and out of doors.
“There’s a lot of action,” he said. In order to keep the convent open, the nuns are making and selling their award-winning wine, even though their Mother Superior has a particular disdain for wine.
Currently a professor at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, Tom Smith has published a number of plays including The Odyssey, Dangerous, Marguerita’s Secret Diary, the Pathmaker, Gray and four adaptations of Shakespeare plays. He is the recipient of the Robert J. Pickering Award for Excellence in Playwriting, The Playworks Award, the Orlin R. Corey Outstanding Regional Playwright Award, the Richard Odlin Award and a Seattle Footlights Award and is a member of the Dramatists Guild.
Among the persons assisting Koreluik and the cast produce the dinner theatre is Shelley Filipchuk, who is in charge of the meal that will be served while the play is being staged.
“We started rehearsals on September 20, meeting in the Kamsack Library once a week,” he said. “We’ll be moving into the theatre before the end of October.”
Other productions of Drinking Habits have received wonderful reviews.
“A delightful comedy with a touch of silliness; a zany and funny story with plot twists galore,” said the Las Cruces Sun-News.
“A laugh-out-loud, farcical, two-act original play that just might leave you wiping tears off your cheeks,” said the Las Cruces Bulletin.
“Those in need of a good laugh, you can rest assured that’s what they’ll get,” said The Willits News.
