Tonight I had the pleasure of attending a pre-showing of our little town’s Southwest Playhouse production of Oliver! Taking my oldest son as my date, I was excited to see some familiar faces taking on the roles of Oliver, Bet, and various orphans, but was pleasantly surprised to find that I hardly recognized them. My attention was drawn so deep into the story that it was only their characters that showed up tonight. I was amazed number after number at the amount of talent there is in our little neck of the plains. Parker Williams melted my heart with his performance of Where is Love? From the smallest little orphan to the crotchety old Mr. Fagin, the cast sang and danced, as we laughed, gasped, and smiled the night away. I can’t even begin to imagine the work that went into such a production. Julie Barnett deserves huge props for her hard work. It paid off for us in a most delightful and entertaining way.
Many times I have sat around complaining about not having many things to do outside of our weekly chinese restaurant appearance (love you Chuy), especially events of a cultural nature. Thank you Southwest Playhouse for bringing the beauty of live theater to our little town. It was such a treat and a great date night with my son.
I did a little googling, and found that we aren’t the only small town with an excellent community theater. The work that goes into such productions and the amount of talent that is voluntarily poured out performance after performance is a labor of love. Love for a work of art that is fleeting with the multi-media world we live in. So dear reader, take advantage, find your local community playhouse, and be a patron.
As Ms. Tallulah Bankhead so elegantly put it,
“If you really want to help the American theater, don’t be an actress, dahling. Be an audience”
Call and reserve your tickets for Oliver! :
The Plain Wife by Aimee Jones 
hey aimee am glad you and your date had ffun at the play house.