Tonight Trimm Photo attended the Fairbury High School theater performance of the play Southern Fried Funeral. We stopped afterwards to get some interviews. (read below) but first we have a review of Saturday's performance submitted (by request) by Beulah Trimm.
From the opening scene where Martha Ann Fox (junior Addi Parrack), Fairy June Cooper (junior Sarah Engleman), and Benny Charles Greenwood (sophomore Caleb Trimm) discuss the details surrounding the death of Frye patriarch and civic-minded, good man, Dewey, at the Rotarian buffet Fairbury Jr./Sr. High’s performance of Southern Fried Funeral is literally laugh-out-loud funny. Then, hearing Dorothy Frye (junior Hailie Nicholson) sincerely thank Benny for letting her husband of over 40 year’s die with dignity was all the more funny considering there was talk of wiping mashed potatoes from his face, removing beans from his nostrils, and talk of Benny’s toupee.
While there is lots of laughter, there is also the expected family drama that comes at such a hard time. Dorothy’s brother-in-law, Uncle Dub (senior Taylor Runge) is the antagonist who is scheming to take her home mere hours after he learns of his brother’s passing. Dorothy’s daughters, Sammy Jo (senior Natalie Rogge) and Harlene (junior Kacy Strarck) verbal spars are fun because they sound like actual southern disagreements – “Shug” and “Lamb” and “Good gravy, you are ugly when you got your hatin’ hat on” all the way to their food fight where poor Ozella Meeks (senior Lauren Patton), chairwoman of the SonShine Committee ends up with pie on her face.
There are touching parts too. Every interaction between Dewey Jr, aka Dewdrop, (8th grader Toby Julin-McCleary and his brother-in-law Beecham (sophomore Alex Buxton) remind you that this is a family story. Dorothy setting a place for her husband at the breakfast table and talking to him about missing her best friend reminds the audience of the loss, making the character even more relatable. Harlene and Atticus (sophomore Zane Grizzle) share a “tender moment” that once again has us laughing.
The directing team of Mr. Fitzgerald and Natalie Julin-McCleary, along with acting coach, Linda Bauer, are indeed worthy of the praise and admiration that the cast and crew heap on them at the end of Saturday evening’s performance. Their guidance has made this one of the most entertaining productions this reviewer has seen to date.
The kids do a great job with their Southern accents, their delivery of a hilarious script, and their acting in general. There is still time to come out and enjoy the show on Sunday, November 17, 2019 at 2 p.m.
How many Rotarians does it takes to have a pancake breakfast? I guess we’ll never know now…
Director Joseph Fitzgerald ---"It was a real honor to work with this cast, the students put in hours and hours of hard work and effort. They were very receptive and coachable. Over the summer I had some ideas but couldn't pin point out something yet so I read probably twelve or thirteen scripts, August came around and kind of narrowed it down. Me, Natalie Julin-McCleary sat down for about three hours one day and started listing out pro's and con's and thought we could pull it off."
Natalie Rogge (Sammy Jo Frye-Lefette)---"I think the play went really good, the energy was up and I think it was one of the best shows we've done so far. The food fight took a long time and we only actually started using food a week ago. Fitz and Natalie just told us to throw and say a line and then keep throwing and be as defensive as possible. I've been doing theater for a long time, I did Missoula Children's Theater ever since I was in Kindergarten and worked my way up from there.
Zane Grizzle (Atticus "Attie" Van Leer)---"The play was awesome, practices were always fun, the performances are the best part. Everyone's coming together, the energy has been the best it's ever been so it's really been fun. Other than playing Rockin Robin in sixth grade I've had no theater experience How did you prepare to play a lawyer?, "Law and Order."
