A blown-up gymnasium, a puppet master and a tap dance on a casket. Planning a high school reunion is harder than the Verdeen cousins — the all-gal trio of Peaches, Gaynelle and Jimmie Wyvette Verdeen — ever imagined.
On Friday, May 5, the cousins will return to the Plant City Entertainment stage for the theater’s production of “The Last Round-Up of the Guacamole Queens.”
Plant City Entertainment fans of “The Red Velvet Cake War” and “Rex’s Exes” will be glad to see the show finally making its way to the stage. The upcoming production is the final play in a trilogy produced by playwrights Jessie Jones, Nick Hope and Jamie Wooten, better known as Jones Hope Wooten Comedies. The theater produced “The Red Velvet Cake War” in 2012, followed by “Rex’s Exes” in 2016.
But, as director Kay Secord said, theater patrons don’t have to have seen the prior shows to enjoy Last Round-Up laughs: a lovestruck uncle, a manners-minding aunt and a mortuarial cosmetologist who can’t snag a date.
“The play catches you up on what you missed,” Secord said. “But it doesn’t confuse you.”
And while the gal-pal Verdeen cousins are often misguided — though it’s nothing a comfort can of Reddi-Wip can’t fix — the audience is bound to root for the town troublemakers anyway.
Kelley Gustafson directed “The Red Velvet Cake War,” the first show in the trilogy. This time, she’s taking the stage as Gaynelle Verdeen, a former Sweetgum, Texas, Guacamole Queen who just attended the funeral of her hated ex-husband.
“She’s a character that I feel like I know,” Gustafson said. “She overcomes a lot of challenges with comedy. I find that endearing because she always comes out on the other side with a smile on her face.”
The show was cast in February, and cast members have rehearsed two or three times per week to nail down the details of the ‘Southern-fried farce.’
Regular theater patrons will likely see familiar faces on the PCE stage. Multiple actors are
reprising their former roles in the trilogy, including Mollie Anderson, Judy Barta and Jeri Scheller.
The show will start at 8 p.m. Friday, May 5, Saturday, May 6, Friday, May 12 and Saturday, May 13, and at 2 p.m. Sunday, May 7, and Sunday, May 14.
Tickets are $16 for adults, and $14 for students and seniors with ID. Groups of 10 or more can purchase tickets for $12 per person at Hardee’s Fashions, 1501 N. Wheeler St.
Contact Emily Topper at etopper@plantcityobserver.com.