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The contents of the on-line edition of The Nugget represent a selection among the stories that appear in the weekly print edition.

Actors stage dinner show recalling fire
By Tom Chace

On the first anniversary of the evacuation of Black Butte Ranch during the Cache Mountain Fire one year ago, a group of actors will stage three short plays at a dinner theater on the deck off the dinning room at the BBR Lodge.

The no-host, public dinner event will be held on Monday, July 28.

One of the short plays will be about the evacuation. Entitled "Fireman's Pie," it recalls many incidents, mostly real, many humorous, about what home owners took with them and the interaction of two families preparing for the worst.

Among the preparations for the evacuation, actual in most cases, was the man who videotaped everything in his home in case it burned so he would have evidence for his insurance company. He evacuated his house, as ordered, and left the video "safely" in his desk.

Then there was the woman who wrote a message for the fireman to eat the pie she had just taken from the oven. Upon her return the pie was in the refrigerator with an appropriate responsive note from one of the firefighters.

There is also a line in the play about the woman who took two bags of dirty laundry with her and the man who dutifully emptied the waste baskets in his house and carried the trash bag with him.

One of the other original plays deals with a husband and wife engaged in an air (conditioning) war. She wants it warmer, he cooler.

Entitled "Thermostat War," the original script, written by Dave Talbot, a Black Butte Ranch resident, was "accepted" at the prestigious Last Frontier Playwrights Conference in Valdez, Alaska earlier this year. Talbot wrote the other plays as well.

Lynn Talbot, an accomplished actress with numerous credits to her name, plays the part of the wife in all three plays and Craig Dennis, who has performed many roles with the Cascades Theater Company (CTC) in Bend, plays her husband.

The third play, "Your Call Is Important," deals with the same couple heading to their winter home in Palm Desert. They attempt to get an appointment for a "high speed cable hookup" to their computer the day they arrive in a hilarious series of phone calls to the cable company.

The actors in these productions sit atop stools, reading from a script, and "act" with their voices only, adding facial inflections, hand and body motions for emphasis and eyes, eyebrow and mouth movements for drama.

"Finger pointing and hand waving are requirements for voice-only acting," one of the actors said.

Besides the two main characters in all three plays, Tom and Mary, a third "voiceless" actor is Fred, the family cat, who has a minor, but important part in the trilogy.

"This form of 'voice only acting' is most difficult," said one observer attending one of many rehearsals, as it requires "total concentration on the words spoken and the recorded sound effects to keep it moving in rhythm and on pace. They do an outstanding, professional job," he said.

"The evening starts at 6 p.m. with a no-host bar. A buffet dinner follows at 6:30," said Sarah Woody, special events coordinator for the Ranch.

Following the salad and entree selection, one of the three plays will be performed; the longest one runs about 25 minutes.

"Then, we'll have a special dessert called, 'BBR Fireman's Pie,' and that will be followed by the remaining two plays," Woody said.

There will be open seating at the tables for eight.

Others in the cast are Pixie Carson, Lou Ann Gibbs, Lauren Anderson, Lynda Sullivan, Rod Dahl (who also has a large number of acting credits locally, at the 2nd Street Theater and at CTC ), Gil Zaccaro (BBR Police Chief), Meredith McKittrick, Jim Kindorf, and Sarah Woody.

Roger Gabrielson "acts" as the stage director.

Call 595-1260 for reservations

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