The Dining Room was a blast!

That's "The Dining Room" cast: Dorian, James, Rosa, Amanda, Nick and Marcy

Went to see The Dining Room last night at the Community Theatre, which runs this weekend & next.

I know you’ll like it. This is a fun show…you can tell the actors are having fun, and the audience definitely was, too.

The show is a character-driven piece of interlaced tales…the six folks in the show play some 50-60 people (I was counting so I could tell you, and lost count) whose lives interweave with each other over eighty years, with the stories centered around a common, modest dining room table (on & under & about, too). Each actor is stretched in the 7-10 characters he/she plays…playing different ages & different stories, with a range of emotions & reactions that all ring true. Merritt Olsen’s well-paced direction of an unusual script lets the scenes flow onto the stage, as the tales of people – real people – come to life.

I’ve gotten to see all the players in different shows except Amanda & Marcy over the years (including Rosa in high school shows n the ’90s) & watched their growth as performers; this show feels like a scrapbook of that growth, as all the actors really push themselves – this may be each actor’s best show. When you see the show, you’ll know what I mean. James, Dorian, Rosa, Nick, Amanda and Marcy light it up.

The Dining Room plays this weekend & next – here’s more.