Winner of the 2007 Samuel French Canadian Playwrights Contest, $38,000 for a Friendly Face, by Ontario playwright Kristin Shepherd kicks off Rosebud Theatre’s 2012 season (March 16 - May 12).
Artistic Director Morris Ertman explains the play, “The story of $38,000 For A Friendly Face is just as the title suggests. What makes a person valuable? How much good can you find in a life?”
“Now, the story itself is pretty ‘nutty’. Two estranged sisters meet each other at their mother’s ‘celebration of Life’. The problem is there is no one there to celebrate but them. The Last Supper Committee is in a panic to try and prepare for the disastrous ‘celebration’, and in the ensuing chaos, a kind of grace emerges that just might salvage the memory of a life, and more importantly the relationships of those left behind.”
$38,000 For A Friendly Face starts at the Sunshine Chapel in the funeral home of a suburban town where Mrs. Bronwyn Bain has died and her estranged daughters have arrived for her ‘non funeral’. The daughters, Jane Bain (Heather Pattengale) and Annie Bain (Alysa Van Haastert), arrive for their mother’s funeral, not having seen their mother in years. Meanwhile Matt Watson (Nathan Schmidt), the new funeral director is determined to find the ‘good things’ to make this a fitting event. The problem continues to escalate as we discover that Matt has no clue how to create an appropriate celebration of life for a woman that nobody liked. Neither does he know how to deal with the Last Supper Committee, consisting of a group of chatty women responsible for the meals for funeral events.
Preparations for a ‘Celebration of Life’ deteriorate on every front and there is the very real possibility that no one will come to celebrate Bronwyn Bain’s passing. Back in the kitchen, The Last Supper Committee members, along with Alison (Jesse Anderson), a young woman who refuses to leave after delivering flowers for the funeral, butt heads as food confrontations arise around the subject of death. In the end, through kindness, forgiveness and rediscovery, everyone benefits with a better understanding of the true value of a person.
On the new season at Rosebud, Ertman comments, “Our 2012 season is all about stories that hold an unusual grace that emerges from stories rife with conflict, whether it is a precocious Anne in Anne of Green Gables, a painter who is compelled to paint the truth of his family in My Name is Asher Lev, a man and his young protégé facing Lou Gehrig’s disease in Tuesdays With Morrie, or a young couple with a miraculous pregnancy problem that defies credibility in May and Joe.”
“Our season celebrates grace in the midst of trying people and trying circumstances. Every play in our 2012 season takes us through a story that reveals the shimmering hopeful resilience of characters who choose to live open heartedly, and who change the world around them in the process.”
