Royal Palm Players ‘Encore! Encore!’ celebrates 32 years
BY NANCY WHITE
Recently the Royal Palm Players presented an evening celebrating 32 years of staged comedies, dramas, musicals and readings, entertaining the Boca Grande community and concluding their superlative season in a return from Covid with a thoroughly engrossing retrospective. It sparkled. It dazzled. The audience, largely ardent fans of RPP, and the performers were as one. The connection was seamless. The audience called out, clapped, sang and stood repeatedly as if on practiced cues, in response to the brilliant display before them. If you missed getting a ticket to this sold-out, memorable occasion, you really missed something.
The evening began under the sunshade of the Community Center Pavilion with a welcoming reception that included drinks and the passing of a rich assortment of delicious hors d’oeuvres organized by Robbin Gilligan and the tap dancers. The husbands of the Tappers served as bartenders and the Tappers themselves as costumed servers. Everyone was invited to don boas, hats, glasses or masks for a photo booth sitting, emerging with a strip of fun theater pics of themselves to bring home. But that was only the beginning of an evening of theater immersion for the attendees. Upon entering the auditorium, the audience was given noisemakers, rattles, horns and clappers, which they put to good use in recognizing the performers and performances. The pit in Shakespeare’s Globe Theater could not have been more enlivened.
The four-page program for the performance, dubbed “Encore! Encore! The 32nd Anniversary Show,” was richly informative. Listed were the 33 performers, a pianist and percussionist and a listing by name of the 98 past shows. Also listed were those who make such an undertaking possible: a director/writer, a musical director, two producers/writers, two stage managers, a deck crew, technical director, costumer, box office manager and graphic designer. Behind the scenes, scene stealer Mark Masselink, master bread maker and all-around assistant, was on hand to help make things run smoothly. The evening in all its aspects made clear the creativity and commitment each person listed brought to the endeavor.
The show written by Alice Court, Erica Ress Martin and Meryl Schaffer was formatted as an Oscar-like awards ceremony. The presenters, representatives from many of RPP’s dramas and comedies, were formally and beautifully attired, and their comments composed, sprightly and funny. Some of the many hilarious past performances were reprised as in the instance of Hal McCombs as Nunsense’s Mother Superior. Ross Witschonke and Kris Doubles, as lasciviously seductive ladies a la Leading Ladies, backed up Jim Sullivan’s rendition of “It Takes a Woman,” amusingly costumed in drag by Arnie Preston.
The many wonderful voices of RPP were on offer, among them those of Julia Pierce, Alice Court, Kimberly Whipple, Jeff Lehrian and Peter Powell, as was the delightfully dramatic crooning of James Martin and comic bemoaning of Elaine Skypala. Jim Grant tweeted like a bluebird singing out “that it’s always darkest just before they turn on the lights.” Posturing humor was richly delivered as always by Jim Grace, Lynda Grant, Sally B Johnson, Cori Palmere, Erica Ress Martin, Priscilla Masselink, Sarah McDonald, Linda Rollyson, Nancy Ryan and Boots Tolsdorf. Kris Doubles brought down the house with his hysterical rendition as Lord Evelyn Oakleigh from Anything Goes! Four routines by Tappers Patty Brink, Carol Forrester, Robbin Gilligan, Mary Hancur and Ned Lehrian were highlighted, to the great delight of the audience, and accentuated following each routine by the deadpan delivery of “that’s a hard act to follow” by David Jenkins, who got laughs every time.
A very heartening moment occurred when Lynda Jamison, escorted onto the stage by dapper James Martin and seated on a lovely wicker garden seat, sang in her inimitable style, the haunting, “If He Walked into My Life” from Mame.
As with the Oscars, those RPP members no longer with us were honored. Maggie Bush reminded us that although the shuttered auditorium of the past two seasons made us want to forget the toll Covid exacted, there were people we would never forget. A large screen was rolled into the auditorium in front of the stage, and as each departed friend was pictured, Lisa Arundale sang “I’ll Be Seeing You.” The audience was audibly moved as the pictures of friends and loved community members came into view.
Those who attended the celebration of RPP’s 32nd anniversary were treated to a remarkable evening. One exit comment that was overheard appeared to sum up the feeling of the departing crowd: “I wouldn’t mind if it went on longer.”
Next season will include: “Last Love,” November 10-13; “On Golden Pond” in January; “The Game’s Afoot” in February; and “Little Shop of Horrors,” March 14-19. Email info@royalpalmplayers.com to be added to the mailing list. An announcement will be sent out when tickets go on sale. It’s important to know that sponsor tickets go on sale before the general public tickets! Participation in Royal Palm Players is welcomed. Visit RoyalPalmPlayers.com for the latest on workshops, volunteer opportunities and ways to be involved.
Nancy White, Royal Palm Players, Boca Grande
(For more photos of these events see last week’s Boca Beacon or go to bocabeacon.smugmug.com and look under category “RPP Productions.”)
