Love, Marriage, Music

‘In This House’ a comedy with heart

— Amusical comedy takes the stage at Sager Creek Arts Center this weekend.

“In This House” is a production with four characters, one couple in their 60s and another couple in their 30s, director Ben Hill says.

Because of a small auto mishap suffered by the young couple, they spend New Year’s Eve at a remote, abandoned farmhouse in rural Maryland, he says. It’s a house the older couple lived in at one time during their marriage.

“In This House” is a musical with dialogue and songs that drive the action, and it is contained to the inside and front yard of the house, Hill says.

Scott Carrington and Liesl Dromi portray the younger couple Johnny D’Amato and Annie Friedkin. The older characters Luisa and Henry Arden are played by Go Strealy and Gary Guinn. The couples exchange views on their relationships, marriage and the direction of their lives, he says.

They have primary allegiance to their own couple, but there are times when the dynamic shifts to where the older man and younger woman are pitted against the older woman and younger man, he adds.

It is a little bit mysterious as to how and why the older couple is at the house at that time, Hill says.

“It’s sort of like they stumbledtogether, but you don’t really know what brought the older couple there until the very end,” he says.

Stephen Sbanotto, a board member at Sager Creek Arts Center, notes other upcoming productions in a Feb. 19 email.

“Tender Lies” will be performed April 26-27 and May 3-4, and auditions will be 7-9 p.m. Monday and Tuesday. A youth production and southern comedy will also be performed in the summer at not yet determined dates.

The Sager Creek Arts Center Board has been built back from a handful of members who have been with the center a long time and new faces with a passion for the arts and experience suited to bringing the arts center alive, Sbanotto says in the email. The board is looking at future growth, such as reinstating the center’s art galleries and offering art classes to the community, he adds.

Whats Up, Pages 14 on 02/22/2013

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