Judy McGroarty

No place like Mud Creek ‘4’ the holidays

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By John Lyle Belden

For those who don’t know, “X” is, aside from part of the English alphabet, the Greek letter “Chi,” which is traditionally used as a shorthand for “Christ,” thus making “Xmas” an acceptable abbreviation for the holiday. In American vernacular, of course, using that spelling usually indicates a less-serious take than any formal religious celebration.

Behold “4 X’mas,” a collection of five works (four short plays and a monologue) by George Cameron Grant, presented by Mud Creek Players through the first weekend of December.

Grant is a popular playwright and “hope peddler” (according to his website) notable for his one-acts. In fact, one of the pieces in the current production – about a set of tree ornaments in their cardboard box – may be familiar to those who saw it in a past edition of the “Phoenix Xmas” show.  

Directed by Andrea Odle, the cast of Rina Baker, Mary Garner, Mason Odle, Oscar Otero, Jennifer Poynter, and Jurrell Spencer charm their way through various holiday-themed happenings.

  • Baker and Spencer get caught up in each other after an “Office Party,” but what will happen when Richard (Otero) comes home?
  • Redemption comes to Hell’s Kitchen in “Santa’s Clara” as a teen on her own (Garner) encounters a shabby Santa Claus (Mason Odle) who knows her too well.
  • In “The First Noel,” a homeless woman (Baker) tells of her life full of “zingers” and how she can’t return to her childhood home, unless it’s for Chinese take-out.
  • As noted, there are some holiday “Balls” (Baker, Garner, Odle, Otero, Poynter) waking up early from their storage space to find how fragile their existence truly is.
  • Finally, “Santa Comes to the King David” brings together – at the middle of the Brooklyn Bridge – a helpful woman (Garner) and a man (Odle) whose holiday tradition has been to play Santa Claus at the Hannukah Bush in a home for Jewish seniors. This includes a sweet appearance by Poynter as his Jewish “aunt.”

Their performances in these little plays deliver a sense of whimsy and romance with hilarity and heart. Some innuendo gets a bit PG, but otherwise this is a great holiday show for everyone.

Andrea Odle is assisted by Lexi Odle-Stollings, with Kathy Jacobs as stage manager. Costumes are by Judy McGroarty with props by Jessica Raine.

Take some time “4 X’mas,” Friday through Sunday, Nov. 28-30 and Thursday through Saturday, Dec. 4-6 at the Mud Creek Players Barn, 9740 E. 86th St., Indianapolis. Get info and tickets at mudcreekplayers.org.

Mud Creek comedy sparking conversation

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By John Lyle Belden

Whatever we find engulfed in destruction – be it a relationship, family, organization, government, nation, or even the world – there is always the question that arises: How did it get this far? Now, in the mirror of hindsight, we see the signs missed, so many of them obvious. And you are positive that if so confronted, you would act better. Right?

Mud Creek Players presents, “The Arsonists,” a translation by satirist Alistair Beaton of the 1950s dark absurdist comedy by Swiss writer Max Frisch, directed by Connor Phelan.

Mr. Biedermann (Collin Moore), a good, honest man who made his modest fortune selling useless hair tonic, is indignant at the news in the paper that somehow various nice houses in the town keep burning down, their owners realizing too late it was the strangers – serial arsonists – who had asked for a place to sleep. “They should all hang,” he says of the firebugs, noting he would never be so easily taken in. His wife Babette (Judy McGroarty) bids him be calm, as this affects her nerves, too. Sharply professional maid Anna (Brittany Michelle Davis) says there is a man at the door.

Thinking it’s about his heretofore faithful employee, Knechtling, whom he had let go, he orders her to send him off. But, she says, it is a stranger. This is different, he realizes, not a matter of business but of manners – a stranger at the door can’t be sent away offended.

Enter Joe Schmitz (Nathan Terhune), a burly man who earnestly states he is a former wrestler from the circus (that burned down) he worked at after a hard life as an orphan. He just needs a little time inside, out of the rain. And a drink would be nice. And maybe some cheese…

Reassuring Biedermann that, of course, he’s not an arsonist – why even suspect such a thing? – Joe sleeps in the attic. A day later, they are joined by Billy Eisenring (Eric Dixon), Joe’s friend and past head waiter at the local restaurant (that burned down). Surely there’s room for him as well, and a few items…

Somebody should see where this is going; fortunately, we have the Chorus, a/k/a the local Fire Brigade. The Superintendent, our Chorus Leader (Katie Brownlee) leads the warning call, between cigarettes (apt in 1953, but adding irony today). The Firefighters – Christopher Moore, Cyrena Knight, Kelly Keller, Ameetha Widdershins, and Malcolm Marshall – join in the cries of woe.

Widdershins cameos as Mrs. Knechtling, and Marshall also plays the “very far-sighted” Doctor of Philosophy, giving his observations of the goings-on.

Given its style and ever-weighty content, this play gives a lot for audiences to take in. But it is well worth the effort, making us laugh and think in equal measure. The cast perfectly play it with nary a wink towards the audience at the growing absurdity that requires no fantasy elements and hardly any sleight of hand. Terhune and Dixon’s “houseguests” give a master class in manipulation and preying on one’s good will. Moore makes Biedermann’s slide into delusion tragically believable.

This occurs in a beautifully detailed set by Michelle Moore, who, with Chris Bundy, arranged set decoration and props. Alaina Moore was assistant director. Stage managers are Cathy Ewbank and Kathy Jacobs.

Frisch at first presented this story as a radio play, the Swiss audience believing it to be a warning against Communism. His perspective was wider, having visited Germany in the 1930s and seeing how his Jewish girlfriend was treated. Decades later, we are invited to consider its metaphors in greater scale.

Anybody got a light?

Performances of “The Arsonists” are Aug. 18-20 and 25-26 at Mud Creek Players, 9740 E. 86th St., Indianapolis. The 2:30 p.m. Sunday performance (Aug. 20) includes a talkback, “Burning Questions,” after the show. For information and tickets, visit mudcreekplayers.org.

Belfry brings inspiring ‘Lilies’ to Noblesville stage

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By John Lyle Belden

“What can just one man do?” “It’ll take a miracle!”

Such sentiments summon angels, and can herald an uplifting story like “The Lilies of the Field,” the play by Andrew Leslie based on the William E. Barrett novel that inspired the 1963 film starring Sidney Poitier. Now the “Lilies” grow in Noblesville, courtesy of the Belfry Theatre, directed by Linnea Leatherman.

In 1954, Homer Smith (DeJon LeTray Marshall-Fisher), freshly discharged from the Army, is done with having people tell him what to do. He outfits a nice station wagon and roams the American West, taking day jobs when he feels like it. In a remote valley in the Southwest, he comes across a farm being tended by several aging nuns in obvious need of help. He plans to just pitch in long enough to patch a roof, take a day’s pay and be on his way – but Mother Maria Marthe (Kim O’Mara), and perhaps a Higher Power, have other plans.

The Sisters have escaped from Communist East Germany and Hungary, and get little aid from the Church, attending Mass in a town a few miles down the road, at an old mission church led by young priest Father Gomez (Gideon Roark).  Smith’s race is of little consequence here, among the Germanic nuns and Latinix villagers – they just think he’s a little loco for taking on Mother Maria’s quest to build an adobe chapel on the site of a burned-out house. He’s not entirely certain how he got talked into it, himself.

The locals are represented in this play by Jose Gonzalez (Patrick Crowley), who runs the diner near Gomez’s church. We also meet rich construction contractor Orville Livingston (Gene Burnett), who helped settle the Sisters in the United States, and figured that would be the end of his obligation.

It is worth it to see this play just for the super-sweet and charming nuns under Mother Maria’s care, played joyfully by Jan Jamison, Judy McGroarty, Jan Borcherding, and especially Diane Reed as dear Sister Albertine. Their humor and exuberance — whether learning English, or singing “That Old Time Religion,” with the man they call “Schmidt” — shines through.

Borcherding also appears as a folksinger in a nice framing device for each Act.

Marshall-Fisher makes a very likable Smith with compulsive generosity, while stubborn at times, but not mean. O’Mara never cracks from the stern, stoic shell she creates for Mother Maria, but she’s far from heartless. Roark and Crowley’s characters seem to enjoy watching this unfold as much as we do. Burnett plays Livingston being as hard as the materials he builds with, but still human.

But that chapel — can one man really do it? Witness the “miracle” at Ivy Tech Auditorium, 300 N. 17th St., Noblesville, through March 27. Get info and tickets at thebelfrytheatre.com.

Mud Creek presents a little mystery with a lot of laughs

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By John Lyle Belden

It’s a real treat to see stage veterans cut loose on a good American farce, such as the faces familiar to audiences at Mud Creek Players generating laughter with “Exit the Body.”

In the early 1960s – when telephones were not only still connected to the wall, in rural areas you still had to talk to the local operator – popular mystery writer Crane Hammond (played by Linda Eberharter) is spending a few weeks in the New England countryside to relax and work on her next novel, dragging reluctant secretary Kate (Barb Weaver) along. The cottage, just down the road from best friend Lillian (Judy McGroarty) and arranged by local real estate agent Helen (Ann Ellerbrook), has secrets of its own – including the possibility of hidden stolen diamonds! It appears that the housekeeper, Jenny (Savannah Jay), is in cahoots with local thug Randolph (Eric Matters) to recover those jewels, wherever they are.

Meanwhile, Lillian introduces her new husband, Lyle (Tim Long), but because of trouble with the old husband, she tells people that he is actually Crane’s husband, Richard (Joe Forestal – he’ll show up eventually). For local flavor, we have handyman/taxi driver/sheriff Vernon (Kevin Shadle). And for the titular Body, we have Phillip Smith (Tom Riddle), who could be anybody.

The hilarious slamming-door antics are helped along by a closet at the center of the set (designed by Jay Ganz) that opens into both the living room and the backstage library. The script and cast make full use of its comic and spooky (the body was there, now it’s gone!) possibilities. Though a mystery, this show delivers more laughs than chills, much like a Scooby-Doo episode for grown-ups.

Ellerbrook has Crane dealing with being in the plot rather than writing it, with McGroarty’s Lillian welcoming the diversion and Weaver’s Kate chewing the scenery with biting sarcasm. Long has Lyle just taking it all in stride. Generating the most laughs are Shadle – with a style reminiscent of a Carol Burnett cast member, keeping his character at the edge of absurdity – and Jay, whose airhead Jenny manages to charm while squeezing all the corn out of a Southern accent.

“Exit the Body” runs through Sept. 29 at the Mud Creek Players “Barn” at 9740 E. 86th St. (between Castleton area and Geist Reservoir). Call 317-290-5343 or visit www.mudcreekplayers.org.