Holiday parade in Cheyenne today, 5 pm

I hadn't been intending to go... but now that there's snow on the ground I'm definitely not going to go.

Rehearsals have begun for She Loves Me at the Cheyenne Little Theater - the play will be at the Mary Godfrey playhouse rather than at the Atlas Theatre.

First performance Dec 9.

I have volunteered and will be a raffle ticket seller on Dec 9.

She Loves Me begins December 9

The Cheyenne Little Theatre is putting on She Loves Me as their "holiday musical" -- known to some of us as a Christmas musical!

I've never seen this on stage but, way back in 1978, I did see a version of it on PBS that I'm quite fond of. Starred Robin Ellis as Georg, Gemma Craven as Amali, Peter Sallis (of Last of the Summer Wine face) as Ladislav, and David Kernan as Kodaly.

It will be very interesting to see who they cast as Kodaly. He's the "villain of the piece" and was my favorite character in this BBC version.

Set in a 1930’s Hungarian Parfumerie, this classic love story tells of Georg and Amalia, coworkers who unwittingly meet through a Lonely Hearts column. As they write anonymous love letters to each other, at work they constantly fight, not knowing they are each other’s pen pals. Events come to a head on Christmas Eve, when all becomes revealed and love triumphs in this sweet, enduring musical.

Rather than the Atlas Theatre, this staging will be in the Mary Godfrey Playhouse, which I believe is inside a school....

2706 E Pershing Blvd,
Cheyenne, WY 82001
Phone: (307) 638-6543

December 9 & 10, 15 - 17 2011 @ 7:30pm [Friday and Sat; Thur, Fri and Sat]
December 11 & 18, 2011 @ 2:00pm [Sunday]

2 days left to see the Mousetrap

The Mousetrap, a production put on by the Cheyenne Little Theatre, staged at the Atlas Theatre, is having its last two performances, tonight at 7.30 pm , tomorrow at 2 pm.

Tickets for adults $22.

The show is a lot of fun. Yes, the actors are amateurs, but good amateurs. and it is a lot of fun to see them strutting their stuff on stage.

Indeed, had I managed to score a free ticket - they had a "caption this photo" contest - I'd be going to see it again on Sunday.

Half of the fun of going to see a live play is to see and hear the reaction of the audience around you. Do they laugh in the same places you do? Or in different places than you do? And so on.

I had a somewhat embarrassing experience, many years ago. I was in the balcony at some theater in Minneapolis....and an actor on stage did some bit of business that I thought was absolutely hilarious. So I laughed out loud. And I have a very loud laugh.

....and I was the only one who laughed.

So for the rest of that act the actor on stage seemed to be looking up into the crowd rather frequently, trying to figure out, apparently, the lone figure in that patch of 500 or so folks who'd thought what he'd done had been funny.

Since that time I've always kept my teeth clenched while I watch a play so I don't laugh quite so loudly...

In any event, plenty of chills, thrills and laughs in the Mousetrap. Go see it!

Cheyenne Little Theatre's Performance of The Mousetrap

The Cheyenne Little Theatre is putting on a production of the Mousetrap for 7 days, Nov 11, 12, and 13th, Nov 17, 18, 19, and 20. (So Friday through Sunday, with an extra, half-price performance on Thursday the 17th.)

My sister and I went to see it on Saturday the 12th.

We had some trepidation going in; we are both theatre goers of long-standing and have seen plays in Minneapolis's Theatreland, including the Guthrie; London's West End, Stratford-Upon Avon (not that that's saying much - I much preferred the Guthrie Theatre's version of Richard II to that at Stratford's, for example, but I digress), and so we were concerned about the quality of the acting. Cheyenne is a town of about 60,000 people (compared to 400,000 in Minneapolis/St. Paul, 7 million in London, etc)) so of course it has a much smaller pool of actors to draw from.

But we were pleasantly surprised. The actors, while amateurs, were very professional, very good. While some of the English accents were better than others, they were all serviceable (heckuva lot better than Kevin Costner's non-existent one in Robin Hood, for example).

I was awash in nostalgia the entire performance. The Mousetrap is the first play I ever saw, way, way back when I was 14 years old, in the West End of London, and I have seen it many times since, Many, many times. Performances put on by both professional and amateur companies. But it had been about 10 years since the last time I'd seen it, so I was amused to realize that I still knew every line of dialog.

The Atlas Theatre "is what it is," as the saying goes. The main floor has hard, stand alone chairs around tables, and the chairs weren't that comfortable. My sister and I were right up against the edge of the stage, which was great in one sense as my eyes aren't what they used to be, but in another sense was extremely hard on the neck as we had to keep looking upwards to watch the action.

The Cast
Molly Ralston - Freya Butterfield
Giles Ralson - Rory Mack
Christopher Wren - Chris Arneson
Mrs. Boyle - Carol Serelson
Major Metcalf - Dale Williams
Miss Casewell - Shelley Russell
Mr. Paravacini - Jon Jelinek
Detective-Sergeant Trotter - Justin Batson
The Director - Keith Neville (brought in from England!)