Date: Fri 07-May-1999

Publication: Bee

Author: SHANNO

Quick Words:

Crook-Nanny-Grace-Christian

Full Text:

Thanks To Crooks & Nannies, Youth Mission Is Becoming Reality

(with photos)

BY SHANNON HICKS

Lovely, just lovely.

The entire production of Every Little Crook and Nanny , which the youth group

at Grace Christian Fellowship chose as its presentation for its first-ever

dinner theatre last weekend, was a lovely success from start to finish.

The fun began in December and culminated in two performances by the youth

group on April 30 and May 1 at the church on Mt Pleasant Road in Newtown. The

two-act comedy was served up for an audience of all ages -- friends, family,

members of the congregation and the general public, all of whom who were in

for a treat from the moment they stepped into the front entryway of the church

Friday and Saturday evenings.

The youth group is raising money to pay for a 15-day trip it will be making to

Costa Rica in July. The decision for the group to go to Costa Rica was made in

December, youth group adviser Adam Fredericks said last week.

The total cost for each person to go on the trip is just over $1,600, and the

total amount the group needs to generate is $25,000.

"Preparations began in December, the same week it was decided the youth group

would be going to Costa Rica," Mr Fredericks said. A jazz concert has been

held at the church to benefit the group, and a few additional fundraising

projects have yet to be completed, but the big event for the youth group has

been the preparation for Every Little Crook and Nanny .

On Friday night, all of the hard work paid off. Guests of the dinner theatre

were greeted in the church's entryway and escorted to their tables. The large

room where the sermons are usually held was completely transformed into a

dining room, with the stage set up front and center.

Gold tablecloths adorned every table, and coordinating black and white pieces

of china were accented by checkered linens. Gorgeous floral arrangements

donated by ladies of the church were on each table.

The stage was a noteworthy piece of work. During the previous week (April

19-23), Newtown schools were on spring break. The youth group, said Mr

Fredericks, spent most of its time at the church, building its set from

baseboards up. Again, the hard work was quite evident.

Every Little Crook and Nanny is a two-act play, all of which takes place in

the front room of Lily Scones' home. The youth group had created a beautiful

room for Lily and her visitors, complete with a couch and a pair of wing

chairs, a coffee table, doors that led into Lily's kitchen and basement,

another door that was the front door of Lily's house, and even a stairway that

led to the home's second floor. The walls were primarily a soft blue, with a

wallpaper border midway up each wall.

In addition to the major furniture, the set had been decorated with the kind

of accessories that turn a set into a comfortable room. There was a wall unit

filled with tidy bric-a-brac, a coat rack with a few jackets hanging from it,

prints on the back wall, and even wooden cut-outs in the shape of cats that

spelled out "kitchen" over one doorway.

"It was a lot of fun," Mr Fredericks said of the week spent building the set.

"It was a lot of work, and it was a great team-building thing at the same

time."

By performance time, the actors' nerves were more than a little bit elevated

backstage but the play was a great hit. Most of the participants, after all,

are not dramatists as a rule but had decided to take on the challenge for the

good of their cause. In the end, everyone's performance was a winner.

Every Little Crook and Nanny tells the story of three nannies -- Lily Scones,

Carmella Dundee and Jocelyn Minow -- and the run-ins the trio has with Lily's

tenants and the tenants' friends. There is a bank robbery, a bit of mistaken

identity, some physical humor, and a huge, unseen cat that terrorizes every

member of the cast.

One of the play's biggest laughs on Friday came inadvertently during the

second act. During a scene where Lily has gone upstairs to look for something,

the cast is left to talk among itself, wondering about the recent curious

behavior of Lily.

Someone missed a cue and suddenly the cast members on stage were ad libbing,

trying not only to kill time and get Lily's attention, but also to keep the

play moving at the same time.

The cast was brilliant. The missed step was covered, but not before the

spontaneous lines that were delivered off the cuff brought a few howls of

good-hearted laughter from the audience.

The audience learned after the final curtain that the youth group had actually

re-written the second act of playwright Pat Cook's comedy, which may have

explained some of the roughness in the missed cue. Overall, the play was a

wonderful presentation and turned out to be the big fundraiser the church was

hoping for. When all was said and done, the two nights of work earned the

youth group another $6,400, the majority of which was collected through

freewill offerings during each evening's intermission.

"That puts us $6,500 away from our goal," Mr Fredericks said this week. "We

are so psyched about that."

During the next few weeks, the youth group will be raising money through a

haircut-a-thon and a car wash. There is also a raffle for baskets of retired

Beanie Babies that has started already. The group is selling tickets for $1

each, and the public has the chance to win one of three baskets.

One basket contains the 1999 Signature Bear, Valentina Bear and Halo the Angel

Bear. The second basket has Hope the Praying Bear, Fortune the Panda Bear and

Kicks the Soccer Bear. The third basket includes the 1998 Holiday Teddy Bear,

Valentino Bear and Santa Beanie. The date for the raffle's drawing has yet to

be set, but right now the youth group is still enjoying the after-effects of

nearly five months of committed work.

"They had a blast," Mr Fredericks said this week of the dinner theatre.

"Saturday night, they were a bit gun-shy. They really felt like they blew it

[on Friday during the second act], and they were really upset with themselves.

"But after the first couple of laughs, they were right back in it and they

just turned it on."

There was talk even before the first performance Friday night of the youth

group presenting another dinner theatre in the future. After the success of

the two performances April 30 and May 1, Mr Fredericks said, there is even

talk among the members of the youth group about writing a sequel to Pat Cook's

play.

"They want to have two of the characters get married, and the boyfriend of one

of those characters [who ended up going to jail at the closing of Crook and

Nanny ] is going to break out of jail and go after the guy who stole his

girlfriend," he laughed. "There is a lot of talk about what to do with Lily

and her friends, too.

"There are plans in the works for all the characters," he paused. "But that's

for the next dinner theatre."