Take the edge off winter with Northport Performing Arts Center
By Ross Boissoneau
Sun contributor
It’s a community party. It’s a mystery. And it’s a delicious farce.
Welcome to the next Cocktails, Canapés, and Comedy theater production, courtesy of the Northport Performing Arts Center. The two-act play Unnecessary Farce involves two cops, three crooks, eight doors and plenty of laughter.
The plot revolves around a corrupt mayor who is meeting with his female accountant in a motel, while in the room next door, two undercover cops wait to catch the meeting on video. There’s some confusion as to who’s in which room, who’s being videotaped, who has the money, who hired a hitman and why. Plus, why does the accountant keep taking off her clothes?
The performance is the successor to dinner theater programs the group used to perform at Tucker’s of Northport, now Northport Pub & Grille. Now offered at the Willowbrook Mill events venue, the shows include appetizers prior to curtain and desserts during intermission, as well as a cash bar.
“People come early, mingle, have a drink,” says Laura Kalchik, who has what she calls a small role in the play and is acting as a stage manager. When she spoke about the show, she was also busy making props for the play: delicious-looking donuts for the police officers’ room, made from spray-foam insulation, paint and sprinkles. Yum.
While Kalchik is busy making those enticing-looking donuts, the folks at Northport’s Around the Corner Food and Fun are busy making the real thing. Audience members will be treated to what Kalchik calls heavy hors d’oeuvres prior to curtain. Then at intermission they’re again free to get up, stretch their legs, grab a drink and chat with their friends while enjoying dessert.
The Willowbrook is set up so the audience is peering into the two side-by-side motel rooms. Kalchik gives props to the set design, including the doors that are a key part of the confusion, as the cast try to grapple with who is coming, who is going, and to and from where. “The doors are amazing,” she says, noting the donation of five of them from Northport Building Supply saved the group time and money. The set also includes the motel room walls, passages, a bathroom. The audience enters the Willowbrook alongside the back wall of the set.
She says the show is a perfect antidote to the feeling of being cooped up indoors when it’s so cold and grey you don’t want to leave the house. “It’s winter, it’s Northport,” she says. “We create something fun locally.” It is a way to stir some excitement in the town at the tip of the Leelanau Peninsula, get residents enthusiastic to go out, see their neighbors and yes, have some fun.
While it is geared toward the local community, Kalchik says the show draws people from elsewhere in the county, Traverse City, even beyond. “There are a lot of Northport residents, but cast members have friends and family from Walloon Lake, Traverse City,” she says.
The cast of seven includes Kalchik, Justin Berryman, Joel Hoard, Greg Maier, Gloria Thomas, John Todd and Kim Todd. It is directed by Joe Thatcher.
What’s next for Kalchik after the donuts? She’s moving on to creating bagpipes. Don’t ask, just come to the show.
The performance dates are Feb. 13-15 and Feb. 20-22. Friday showtime is 7 p.m., with doors opening at 6 p.m. for appetizers and cash bar. Showtime for the Saturday and Sunday performances is 4 p.m., with doors opening at 3 p.m. for appetizers and cash bar.
Tickets are $60, which include both hors d’oeuvres and dessert along with the show. They can be purchased online at northportperformingarts.org or by calling 231-386-2009. Seating is limited.
