Crimora Players to perform ‘An Inconvenient Corpse’ | Arts And Entertainment

CRIMORA — The Crimora Players’ newest production will combine comedy, murder mystery, and small-town political intrigue — and will support a good cause, too.
The group will be putting on a production of “An Inconvenient Corpse” with a 16-actor cast at the Crimora Community Center this weekend.
The Crimora Players are a community theater group based at the Crimora Community Center, where they host their comedic plays about five times a year.
The original group formed by accident in 1995 as an arm of the Forest Chapel Church of the Brethren in Crimora, known as the Forest Chapel People. A member of the small church stumbled upon a play script and thought it would be fun to act it out, she said. The theater group was renamed the Crimora Players and moved to the Crimora Community Center in 2001. Since then, they have performed almost 100 shows.
The players use funds from their plays, which cost $15 a ticket for dinner and a show, to support locals undergoing medical treatment. The funds raised from “An Inconvenient Corpse” will benefit local resident Becky Buyny, who is going through radiation treatment for cancer.
Pat Cook wrote the play, which Pioneer Drama distributes. It revolves around a mysterious death during a luncheon, which the members of the local “ladies’ group” must conceal from the other residents of a small town.
“I’m in the play as Gert. I’m one of the members of the ladies’ group,” said Teresa Stewart, who also helped organize the play. “One of the founding fathers [of the town] passed away, and his grandson comes to be the parade’s grand marshal. He wants to make a lot of changes to the town that aren’t going over well, and in the middle of eating, he dies all of a sudden. So, we’re trying to hide the fact that he is dead from the mayor while we’re trying to figure out what’s going on.”
Stewart said they raised about $3,000 from their last play, “Granny Runs for President,” and hope to raise at least $2,500 this time.
This is not the first time the Players have performed “An Inconvenient Corpse” — they also put on a production of it in 2020. However, the cast and costumes were different. They came back to the play, cast members say, because of its “slapstick humor.”
Tyler Koch plays two roles, a night watchman and a reporter, in the play. He played a similar security guard role in “Granny Runs for President” back in September.
“If you’ve ever seen Green Acres, I’m trying to do my [reporter] character after Mr. Haney,” Koch said. “Mainly, he’s trying to go after the mayor and expose the mayor, so that’s a lot of fun. Bill Clark plays the mayor, so we have a lot of back-and-forth there.”
Koch said the audience can expect a lot of slapstick humor and “crazy outfits” if they go to see the play.
“There’s so many subplots going on, and it’s so ridiculous,” Koch said. “I think that makes the play, all those little scenes. There’s always something happening.”
Athena Boggs plays a sheriff as well as her favorite role, that of “Nelda,” a soothsayer who warns the rest of the characters that “the end is near.”
“I like small parts; they’re easier for me to remember but keep me going,” Boggs said. “I just really enjoy it. I pop out at intermission too — I say, ‘the end is near, but right now it’s intermission.'”
Boggs works as a teaching assistant and said she only considered being in a play once she met some of the Crimora Players while bowling in 2016.
“Most of these are my bowling friends, and they just asked me at the bowling alley,” Boggs said. “They said hey, we have a good part. So, I came up here, played the part, and enjoyed it. When I was young, I didn’t want to be on the stage or anything. So, this is something new for me, and I love it.”
Showings of “An Inconvenient Corpse” will be on Friday and Saturday at 5:30 p.m. and Sunday at 12:30 p.m. at the Crimora Community Center. Tickets are $15 at the door and include dinner. Seats are given on a first-come, first-served basis, so for the best chance of getting a seat, reserve your ticket ahead of time by calling (540)487-0526 or emailing [email protected].
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