Old Fort Players

Ladies take on Odd Couple this week at OFP

Female take on Neil Simon play live this weekend and next

Four friends from The Odd Couple - Female version share a song during a game of trivia pursuit in the first act Tuesday during a dress rehearsal.
Four friends from The Odd Couple - Female version share a song during a game of trivia pursuit in the first act Tuesday during a dress rehearsal.
Photo by Chuck Vandenberg/PCC
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FORT MADISON – A twist on the lovable Felix Unger and Oscar Madison takes the stage this weekend at Old Fort Players, but in most cases they’re wearing a bra.
The Odd Couple-Female Version, a play by Neil Simon, hits the stage after a brief delay this spring. The comedy  with some real laughs starts on Friday evening with a 7:30 p.m. performance. The cast continues the show again on Saturday and then Sunday with a 2 p.m. showing. The same schedule will take place the following weekend June 9-11.
Online ticket sales are still underway at https://oldfortplayers.com/. General admission tickets are just $15, with seniors and military personnel tickets at $12. Students are $10.
Instead of Felix and Oscar, we get Florence and Olive with Olive the free-wheeling type B personality to Florence’s buttoned-down Type A looking for a friendship connection after a bitter separation.
Olive is played pretty darned well by first-timer Tierra Griffith who brings together the character of a sports geek of sorts and the good-ole-girl. Griffith is the librarian in Montrose and is relatively new to southeast Iowa being here just 18 months.
Florence Unger is played by Jennifer Pranger whose passive-aggressive approach to just about everything is only received well by Olive – on occasion.
Pranger is taking on her second role with OFP after rolling with Drinking Habits 2. She’s also volunteered in different roles with the theater. Apparently, she makes some mean baked goods as well.
OFP vet Richar Abel plays Sylvie, a friend of the duo who’d rather “keep it real” than play around with the Unger’s  emotional leanings. Abel is steeped in OFP operations with a role on the board and she ran the children’s theater.
Ty Clute and Michael Reed Randolph return to the playhouse in roles as a couple of suave Spanish suitors, Manolo and Jesus Costazuela. The two bring the comic relief to an otherwise constant settling of the relationship between Olive and Florence.
Cathleen James plays another of the circle of friends, Mickey. James is not such a novice to the community theater but cut her chops in high school. She has had roles OFPs “Four Old Broads” and “Miracle on 34th Street”.
Other cast members include Alicia Rodriguez and RaCayla Adams who round out the group of friends as Vera and Renee.
The play starts in the semi-ransacked bachelorette pad of Olive in New York City. After offering the dispondent Florence a room in the apartment, things go just as you’d imagine as the tidy Unger takes over causing a tectonic shift in Olive’s lifestyle that may – or may not – get worked out.
You’ll have to grab a seat and find out for yourself. Be ready, this one will make you laugh.
Angela Sanford again directs.

Old Fort Players, OFP, The Odd Couple, Female Version, Neil Simon, Fort Madison, downtown, Pen City Current, news, spotlight

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