The Adobe Theatre to Present THE MISS FIRECRACKER CONTEST

The Miss Firecracker Contest opens at The ADOBE Theater on Friday, October 30th and runs 4 weekends through Sunday, November 22nd. Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30pm and Sundays at 2:00pm with a special 'Pay What You Will' performance (to benefit the cast and crew) on Thursday November 12th at 7.30pm. Tickets are $17, seniors and students $15. Reservations 505-898-9222 or online at www.adobetheater.org.

It's early July in the tiny town of Brookhaven, Mississippi, just days before their annual "Miss Firecracker" contest. Local beauty Carnelle Scott believes that winning the "Miss Firecracker" title will salvage her tarnished reputation (she's known locally as "Miss Hot Tamale"), and allow her to leave town in a blaze of beauty pageant glory. Things get complicated, though, when Carnelle's cousin Elain (a former "Miss Firecracker" herself) arrives unexpectedly and announces she has left her rich (but boring) husband and her two children. Toss in Elain's highly unstable brother Delmount, an eccentric costumer called 'Popeye' who claims she hears things through her eyes, and other unusual small-town characters, and Carnelle's "Miss Firecracker" dream turns a little nightmarish!

A long-run Off-Broadway success, The Miss Firecracker Contest is an explosively funny play that mines rich lodes of humor and simple wisdom in the zany activities of small-town life.

The Miss Firecracker Contest is written in author Beth Henley's "Southern Gothic" style created in her well-known 1981 play Crimes of The Heart (winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama). Her distinctive writing combines laughter, warmth, and hope in stories of small town Mississippi. Miss Henley also adapted The Miss Firecracker Contest into a 1989 feature film starring Holly Hunter.

The Adobe Theater's talented cast includes Janine O'Neill (Carnelle), Micah Linford (Delmount), Sheridan K. Johnson (Elain), Sandra Williams (Popeye), Paul Hunton (Mac Sam) and Kristina Caffrey (Tessy).

The Miss Firecracker Contest is directed by Philip J. Shortell, most recently seen on stage at The Adobe in The Sunshine Boys, and in other Albuquerque theaters in Death of A Salesman, All My Sons, Juno and the Paycock, and James Cady's Hamlet.

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