Office Party, a comedy by Misty Maynard, opened September 11th at the Kechi Playhouse. Maynard has assembled a capable cast who has created fun characters in this third outing for the play. The play will run Fridays/Saturdays at 8:00 and 2:30 on Sundays through October 4th. For reservations call 316-744-2152.
The plot revolves around a young married couple and their shy friend who buy Skate Party, a defunct roller rink, with hopes of making a fortune running an office supply store in their small town. When an advertising gimmick goes awry, their store sign is not completed leaving the impression that they provided office parties. Since the office supply business is tanking due to a giant box office store just built outside of town, Owen inveigles shy Egbert to wear their penguin mascot costume to do a chaste strip tease for groups of ladies. What follows is a series of events that will delight their audiences.
Owen, played by Andrew Johnson, is pie in the sky dreamer who thinks big and overlooks what he considers to be the small stuff. Johnson is a delight playing Owen with exuberance and lots of physicality. Rene, played by Hannah Smith, is Owen’s very pregnant wife who is forced to go along with Owen’s get quick rich scheme because he forgot to keep her in the loop. I was particularly impressed with Hannah’s line delivery and characterization. Her dialog is delivered in a super natural tone of voice which makes the character very real to the audience. She was believably pregnant with all of the complications that come with a pregnancy that is very near its culmination. Braden Layman plays Egbert, Owen’s childhood friend, who becomes an investor/salesman in the store because he just can’t say no to his buddy. Layman quietly builds his character from the shy introvert to the outlandish entertainer he is forced to become. Mike Taylor plays the friendly neighborhood mailman who enlightens our hapless trio with the problems of their endeavor. Taylor is a hoot who is clearly enjoying playing this role. His physical comedy after shocking himself with his own stun gun is worth the price of the admission. I was happy to see Anna Bohr cast at Lena, the woman who Egbert and Rene meet at a strip club. Her dry delivery is a nice contrast to the other characters. This Lena was different from the other actresses I have seen in this role, and I was impressed with her characterization.
Storme Maynard (art work), Christy Railsback (costumes), Richard Schultz (set construction), Jeff Dary (voice overs), Misty Maynard (sound design), Heather Johnson (publicity), Casey Eubank (box office), and Sophie Docter (front of house) are to be commended for their behind the scenes work that makes this production special.
If the audience reaction during Sunday’s matinee is any indication, future audiences will leave the theatre remember the many belly laughs they experienced. After seeing the two previous productions, I laughed a lot.
Coming up next concluding their 44th season IX’TICHA Spider-God of the Amazon! an entertaining spoof of old jungle movies from the 1940’s. The play will run October 9th to November 1st.
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