Update: As of Friday, the Sunday April 27 matinee is sold out.
The Keizer Homegrown theatre cast and crew had a surprise guest at a recent performance of “Drinking Habits” – the playwright.
Tom Smith, the award-winning dramatist, caught the show Saturday, April 19, and met with the troupe, later texting that it was great to meet with them and see their production.
“I always feel so happy when community theaters are able to produce my work because they are doing it for the love of performing and directing and designing,” he wrote. “I got my start in community theaters and I like to write for community theaters because there’s a great connection between the actors and the audience.
“It’s just a really special experience for theaters like yours to produce my work.”
Smith is a theater professor at Tacoma’s Pacific Lutheran University, and his plays have been produced widely, from small stages to Broadway. Among his awards is the Robert J. Pickering Award for Playwriting Excellence for “Drinking Habits.”
Smith noted that the comedy has had more than 500 productions worldwide, in 18 countries.
“That kind of blows me away to think that this fun little farce that I wrote is reaching so many people in so many different cultures and that there’s something in it that seems to resonate with them all,” he said.
Smith’s Keizer visit was described as “a total surprise” by the Homegrown crew, who were delighted to perform for him.
There’s still a chance for Keizer audiences to catch “Drinking Habits” as its wraps up its run this coming weekend. Curtain time is 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday, April 25-26, and 2 p.m. Sunday, April 27.
The play follows the hilarious tale of two nuns secretly making wine to keep their convent solvent. The show is full of zany twists as the surreptitious side gig draws the attention of two reporters who go undercover as a priest and nun, eager to expose the convent’s secret.
General admission is $15. To reserve tickets, visit keizerhomegrowntheatre.org.
Cast members are: Douglas Wentz, Jennifer Johnson, Cathy Willoughby, Valerie Mozena, Laura Davis, Tavis Evans, Robert Condron, Nathalie Reid-Holbrook. Lauren Stenerson is the stage manager, and Jeff Minden is the director.
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