Record weekend opener
The Mill Town Players kicked off their 2016-17 season with their production of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! last weekend, with morethan 1,000 people attending over the opening weekend.
Oklahoma! runs for the next three weekends through Aug 7 with shows Thursdays through Saturdays at 7:30pm and Sundays at 3pm. The production will be performed in the Historic Pelzer Auditorium at 214 Lebby Street, Pelzer. Tickets are only $10 with discounts for seniors, military and students at the door or online at www.milltownplayers.org.
Oklahoma features nineteen local actors, sixteen of which are performing with the Mill Town Players for the first time.
The cast includes Nathaniel Stafford as Curly, Lauren Veselak as Laurey, Drake King as Will Parker, Carly Frates as Ado Annie, Craig Smith as Jud, Drew Kenyon as Ali Hakim, and Shannon Faulkner as Aunt Eller.
Also invoved in the production are Lauren Imhoff – director/choreographer; Joshua C. Morton – musical director; Jayce T. Tromsness – scenic design; Graham Shaffer – lighting design and Jessica Snyder – costumes.
Oklahoma is the famous theater writers’ first collaboration and remains, in many ways, their most innovative, having set the standards and established the rules of musical theater still being followed today.
Set in a Western Indian territory just after the turn of the century, the high-spirited rivalry between the local farmers and cowboys provides the colorful background against which Curly, a handsome cowboy, and Laurey, a winsome farm girl, play out their love story.
Although the road to true love never runs smooth, with these two headstrong romantics holding the reins, love’s journey is as bumpy as a surrey ride down a country road. That they will succeed in making a new life together we have no doubt, and that this new life will begin in a brand new state provides the ultimate climax to the triumphant Oklahoma!
For more information about Mill Town Players and upcoming productions, call (864)947-8000 or visit www.milltownplayers.org.
