The community theater in Culver that has been putting on productions for three and a half decades has spent months preparing for their latest show, ‘Hello Dolly!’. Performers come from all over the northern Indiana area to audition to be a part of the Maxinkuckee Players. This year, about thirty thespians will grace the stage towards the end of July and beginning of August.
‘Hello Dolly!’ is an adaptation of the play ‘The Matchmaker’ by Thorton Wilder. Long time member of the Maxinkuckee Players, Brian Liechty shared a bit about what audiences can expect when they attend any of the upcoming six performances of ‘Hello Dolly!’, “It’s a love story of sorts, there’s a lot of singing, a lot of dancing. We’ve got some comedy relief in between the foils.”
The Maxinkuckee Players will perform this musical in the Culver Community High School Auditorium on Friday, July 24th, Wednesday, July 29th, Friday, July 31st and Saturday, August 1st at 7:30 pm. There will also be two Sunday performances on July 26th and August 2nd which will commence at 4 pm(EDT).
One of the newer players, Doug Nielsen is performing the lead male role this year. The three year member Nielson said the players put a lot of work into rehearsals but also get a lot out of it, “I hope the folks out there watching it have half as much fun watching it as we do putting it on. It’s intense some, with a lot of work and stuff, but we have fun.”
Aside from Brian and Doug other major players in the musical include Lenore Jones as the leading lady, Tony Hutchinson, Wendy Wise, Julie Scott, Austin Saenz and Justine Dexter. The production manager is Charlie Weaver, the assistant director is Wendy Wise and Becky Liechty is the director.
Next Friday on opening night, all patrons can get tickets for only $5 each. For the remainder of the performances, adult tickets cost $10 each and tickets for children 12 and under cost $5.
