Wadena kept theatre in the community with their most recent performance, Farce of Habit, taking the stage on May 3-5.
Club founder Pat Casement says it was a comedy of errors as more and more crazy characters piled into a cabin the Ozark Mountains, some to relax, others to escape, while others are there to perform dastardly deeds.
From a gaggle of nuns, to a radio host and an amateur actor, to mounties and axe murderers, everyone is in town to wreak havoc on the Reel ‘Em In Inn.
With so many plot lines in the play, it was well written, says Casement.
“You laugh continuously from open curtain to final act.”
It was even a challenge for the actors, says Casement with early rehearsals taking longer than they should have because the actors were laughing so much.
There has always been regional theatre in Wadena but the Wadena Players Theatre took it to the next level in 2010 by having their own theatre club to raise money for the hall, says Casement.
“We had this new hall so we decided to get something going in here.”
When the group started, they were calling the high school gym home and did not need any kind of microphones.
The move to the hall changed that and called upon the arts council to help them get performing microphones. After the performance, they wanted to keep the club going with the fund going back into improving their community hall to make it more performing arts friendly.
“Since that beginning in 2010, we’ve manage to turn back over $30,000 into equipment and material into the hall,” says Casement.
More will be needed as time goes on with the club always looking for ways to make the space better, including looking into upgrades of sound and lighting equipment.
Just like farming, says Casement, “there’s never enough and it’s never big enough or powerful enough.”
