Eastcheap Theatre Collection presents encore performances

Eastcheap Theatre Collection, Orange City, will close its summer season in Northwestern College’s DeWitt Theatre Arts Center with encore showings of two dramatically different productions.

Frozen, a dark drama by Bryony Lavery, will be on stage Thursday, Aug. 27, and Saturday, Aug. 29, at 7:30 p.m.

The comedy Fuddy Meers, by David Lindsay-Abaire, will be presented Friday, Aug. 28, at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday, Aug. 29, at 2 p.m.

Frozen explores the icy emotions of a serial pedophiliac killer, the cold analysis of the clinical psychologist studying his case, and the suspended life of the mother of one of his victims. Eastcheap founder Karen Barker, who teaches theatre at Northwestern College, says she and company members chose Frozen because “it will stretch us.”

Barker warns that the drama’s subject, scenes and language are for mature and serious theatre-goers only. “It’s ugly,” she explains. “But a mentor of mine used to chide: ‘You Christians want to see stories of forgiveness without facing the brokenness that necessitates the forgiveness.’ Frozen shows all the brokenness, which makes it, we believe, a story rich in forgiveness and redemption.”

The show is being directed Eastcheap member and Northwestern theatre professor Bob Hubbard. Barker will act. Other cast members are company member April Hubbard, a Dordt College theatre professor, and Northwestern student Brady Huffman.

Fuddy Meers is a hilarious house-of-mirrors play about a day in the life of Claire, who suffers from psychogenic amnesia. Claire wakes up every morning with no memory of the previous day, which makes sorting through the cast of questionable characters she encounters both confusing and comical.

Barker calls Fuddy Meers typical summer fare for a professional theatre company. “It’s just fun,” she says, “purely entertaining.”

The show is being directed by Northwestern College alumna Rachel Foulks. Actors include Hubbard and Eastcheap member Jeff Barker, a Northwestern theatre professor.

Other cast members are Huffman, Northwestern theatre alumna Lois Estell and student Jon Manchester, Dordt theatre professor Teresa Ter Haar, and MOC-Floyd Valley High School sophomore Dan Barker.

General admission tickets for Frozen and Fuddy Meers are $7; student tickets are $3. Tickets can be purchased at the Northwestern College Theatre Box Office, which opens one hour before each performance.