Jack of Diamonds

photo is courtesy of EMH Productions with Deborah Shalohoub and Lew Rooker

 

 

 

Jack of Diamonds, a retirement home comedy by Marcia Kash and Douglas E. Hughes examines the lives of five residents of an upscale retirement community, who have just learned that their broker has lost their life savings in a Ponzi scheme.  The show is just plain silly, with laughs a-plenty as the crew tries to figure out how to stay in their expensive community. (There are lots of fart jokes, and bathroom jokes)

Lew Rooker is the Jack of the title, one of those TV-jewelers, with a stash of Viagra in his back pocket and an eye for Blanche (Katherine Muris), the narcoleptic woman who passes out at odd moments.

Deborah Shalhoub is Rose, a visually-challenged woman with laxatives in her purse.  Rose is addicted to the Internet.

Georgann Wallace is Flora, who suffers from dementia, but who makes beautiful jewelry.

Ryan Boyd is Barney Effward (great name), the guy who lost the money, now hiding in the retirement community pretending to be catatonic.  There are lots of funny discussions about what to do with him.

Elise Hodge is Nurse Harper, the rigid care giver, who runs the community more like a prison.  Hodge is also producer, co-director, and set designer of this production

Chas Weiss plays three small parts and is especially good as a germaphobic attorney.

Corey Morris is the director who keeps all the craziness going and who greets each patron as if he is welcoming them to their new home.

Daddy's Dyin' Who's Got the Will

Del Shores’ “Daddy’s Dyin’,Who’s Got the Will?” is playing to near sell-out houses at the Ooley Theatre, under the direction of Corey Morris, making his Sacramento directorial debut.

This black dramady is the story of the dysfunctional Turnover family, from Lowake, Texas, gathering after years of estrangement, for a death watch on father Buford.  All the children are desperate to find his will. but it is missing and Buford (Lew Rooker) is so demented, he is of no help.

The roost is ruled by Mama Wheelis (Deborah Shalhoub – Tony’s sister), Buford’s mother-in-law, who rules with a strong hand, doesn’t allow profanity or pre-marital sex in her house.  She has aprons for all occasions, including a black one for funerals.

Sara Lee (Adriana Marmo) is the “good child” who stayed home to care for her father, while sister Marlene (Elise Hodge) is a born again preacher’s wife who lives nearby and helps, when she can, with their father.

Evalita (Bethany Hidden) has not been home for years.  She arrives with metallic red hair and a costume in danger of having a wardrobe malfunction at any moment.  She’s working on husband #6 and hopes to use her inheritance to pay for costs to produce her first record.

Son Orville (Rob McCrea) is a stereotypical redneck wife-beater whose wife Lurlene (Elizabeth Anne Springett) is obsessed with her recent weight loss.

Rounding out the cast is Evalia’s barefoot boy toy Harmony (Mitchell Thompson) who is getting a little tired of Evalita’s self-centeredness, and finds a friend in Lurlene.