Kyle Norton as Matt Ross, Andrea Hackett as Katie Merkle and Andrea Ardans as Chrystal Mathis rehearse their ‘virtual’ audition for The Crucible during a real rehearsal for Kingdom City.
The Memorial Day Weekend production for the Majestic Readers’ Theatre Company is Kingdom City by Sheri Wilner. The play is directed by Richard Wagner. The story asks, “is it logical to attempt thought control over high school students” and is based on an incident that happened in Missouri in the beginning decade of this century.
Miriam (Meghan McCloskey) and Daniel (Ward Fairbairn) have recently arrived from New York City and don’t fit into the conservative religious small town of the title. More to fight boredom than to use her talents as a theater director, Miriam takes a temporary job advising the high school drama club. Although she really doesn’t like Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, she feels it should be suitable for the community. This decision begets all the drama, irony and comedy of Kingdom City.
Katie (Andrea Hackett) and her boyfriend Matt (Kyle Norton) take “purity” classes to suppress adolescent desires while Chrystal (Andrea Ardans) hides her secret emotions with curses and extreme ambition. Luke (Nicolai Kassatkin), the children’s youth minister, is surprised to discover adultery in the script and of course, there are always two sides to every story. Knowledgeable audience members will enjoy the author’s clever use of lines directly from The Crucible and other plays hidden in the dialogue. While Wilner uses gentle sarcasm to point out the hypocrisy of censorship she never strays from the significance of the issue.
Performances are Saturday, May 25th at 3 PM and two Sunday performances May 26th at 3 PM and 7 PM in the Community Room of the Majestic Theatre. Tickets are available at the Majestic Box office Wednesday through Friday from Noon until 5 PM. Prices are 10 and 12 dollars. You can also purchase tickets on the web at https://app.arts-people.com/index.php?show=90932