Cast List
Claude Pichon – Cormac Spiares
Albert Donay – Nate Collins
Andre Bouville – Sam Arias
Mariette Levieux – Valencia Jones (Th/F) Morgan Case (Sat, Sun)
Yvonne Fouchet – Meg Morrison
Gabrielle Buonocelli – Sofia Izaguirre
Albert Donay – Nate Collins
Andre Bouville – Sam Arias
Mariette Levieux – Valencia Jones (Th/F) Morgan Case (Sat, Sun)
Yvonne Fouchet – Meg Morrison
Gabrielle Buonocelli – Sofia Izaguirre
Costume research
Waco TRib Article
Invitees to a French restaurant find their ex-spouses among the guests in McLennan Theatre's comedy "The Dinner Party," which opens a four-performance run Thursday night.
Joe Taylor, provided
From left to right: Cormac Spiares, Meg Morrison, Valencia Jones, standing Sofia Izguierra, Sam Arias, and Nate Collins.
--Carl Hoover
A meal at a swanky French restaurant where one's tablemates are (mostly) strangers sounds like awkwardness on a plate. Unless, of course, it's a setup by the late American playwright Neil Simon, which means repartee filled with one-liners, character types who are recognizable, and a little social message sandwiched into the humor and the onstage action.
That play by Simon, "The Dinner Party," opens a four-performance run by McLennan Theatre on Thursday at McLennan Community College's Music & Theatre Arts Building.
It's an intentional change of pace from the theater's last production, "The Love of Three Oranges," whose story was told in commedia dell'arte style with plenty of slapstick laughs, observed director and MCC associate professor of theater Joe Taylor. "The Dinner Party" features a smaller, six-actor cast, a shorter running time with no intermission and simpler production needs, which makes it a good fit between a large season-opening production and the Thanksgiving holiday before semester's end, he said.
In "The Dinner Party," six people — Claude Pichon (Cormac Spiares), Albert Donay (Nate Collins), Andre Bouville (Samuel Arias), Mariette Levieux (Valencia Jones), Yvonne Fouchet (Meg Morrison), Gabrielle Buonocelli (Sofia Izaguirre) — are invited to a dinner at an upscale Parisian restaurant. (Editor's note: Assistant director Morgan Case played the role of Mariette in the Saturday night and Sunday productions.) They arrive at different times, until they come to realize that they're divorced and their exes are among the other guests. As the conversation progresses, their marital issues begin to surface, from a couple experiencing unequal career success to one with a smothering partner and another that indulged each other too much.
Who set this up? They suspect the attorney who handled their divorces.
The challenge in the McLennan production has been to keep the comedy from sliding into farce while making the interactions between formerly married partners feel realistic and their conclusions believable. "They're coming to terms with what they did wrong," Taylor said.
This being a play from one of America's great comic and commercially successful playwrights, the story's resolution doesn't undercut the comedy before it. Simon, it should be noted, was married five times.
The play's occasional profanity and subject matter makes it equivalent to a PG-13 film, the director said.
“The Dinner Party”
By McLennan Theatre
Performances: 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday at McLennan Community College’s Music & Theatre Arts Building.
Tickets: $10, $8 for senior adults and
non-MCC students, available by calling
254-299-8200 or emailing
[email protected].
A meal at a swanky French restaurant where one's tablemates are (mostly) strangers sounds like awkwardness on a plate. Unless, of course, it's a setup by the late American playwright Neil Simon, which means repartee filled with one-liners, character types who are recognizable, and a little social message sandwiched into the humor and the onstage action.
That play by Simon, "The Dinner Party," opens a four-performance run by McLennan Theatre on Thursday at McLennan Community College's Music & Theatre Arts Building.
It's an intentional change of pace from the theater's last production, "The Love of Three Oranges," whose story was told in commedia dell'arte style with plenty of slapstick laughs, observed director and MCC associate professor of theater Joe Taylor. "The Dinner Party" features a smaller, six-actor cast, a shorter running time with no intermission and simpler production needs, which makes it a good fit between a large season-opening production and the Thanksgiving holiday before semester's end, he said.
In "The Dinner Party," six people — Claude Pichon (Cormac Spiares), Albert Donay (Nate Collins), Andre Bouville (Samuel Arias), Mariette Levieux (Valencia Jones), Yvonne Fouchet (Meg Morrison), Gabrielle Buonocelli (Sofia Izaguirre) — are invited to a dinner at an upscale Parisian restaurant. (Editor's note: Assistant director Morgan Case played the role of Mariette in the Saturday night and Sunday productions.) They arrive at different times, until they come to realize that they're divorced and their exes are among the other guests. As the conversation progresses, their marital issues begin to surface, from a couple experiencing unequal career success to one with a smothering partner and another that indulged each other too much.
Who set this up? They suspect the attorney who handled their divorces.
The challenge in the McLennan production has been to keep the comedy from sliding into farce while making the interactions between formerly married partners feel realistic and their conclusions believable. "They're coming to terms with what they did wrong," Taylor said.
This being a play from one of America's great comic and commercially successful playwrights, the story's resolution doesn't undercut the comedy before it. Simon, it should be noted, was married five times.
The play's occasional profanity and subject matter makes it equivalent to a PG-13 film, the director said.
“The Dinner Party”
By McLennan Theatre
Performances: 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday at McLennan Community College’s Music & Theatre Arts Building.
Tickets: $10, $8 for senior adults and
non-MCC students, available by calling
254-299-8200 or emailing
[email protected].