Stage Right’s 15th Season: Re-staging our Premiere 2008 Production
In early fall of 2008, seven people were diligently organizing a new nonprofit community theatre company. These seven people were Greg Kelly, Thomas Lockhart, Michael Goode, Molly Goode, Carolyn Wong, Steve Wong and Amy Sowers. Main Stage Productions, dba Stage Right was formed to produce quality entertainment for the community and to support the historic Crighton Theatre. We had a mission statement, had obtained nonprofit status, established a board of directors and created by-laws. What’s next on the agenda? It’s time to produce a show! We had only seven people. We started contacting actors we knew, family members and friends to create a volunteer base for our fledgling company. We chose a nontraditional Christmas production that intrigued the board, Christmas Belles by Jessie Jones, Nicholas Hope and Jamie Wooten. Billed as a “southern fried comedy”, it’s small cast and quirky characters were perfect for our purposes. It was time to announce the auditions. Hopefully, actors would turn out for our initial production and fortunately, they did. Christmas Belles was cast and rehearsals began.
The original cast members in this premiere production were Carolyn Wong as Miss Geneva Musgrave, Amy Sowers as Honey Raye Futrelle, Dalin Kennard and Megan Goode as Gina Jo Dubberly, Micheal Raabe as John Curtis Buntner, Melody Gray as Twink Futrelle, Kat Gilcrease as Dub Dubberly, Maria Sirgo as Frankie Futrelle Dubberly, Melody Montez as Rhonda Lynn Lampley, Chad Thackston as Justin Waverly, Thomas Lockhart as Raynerd Chisum and Cindy Tippens as Patsy Price. This Jones, Hope and Wooten holiday journey is guaranteed to bring joy to your world. A church Christmas program spins hilariously out of control in this Southern farce about squabbling sisters, family secrets, a surly Santa, a vengeful sheep, and a reluctant Elvis impersonator. It’s Christmas time in the small town of Fayro, Texas and the Futrelle sisters-Frankie, Twink and Honey Raye-are not exactly in a holiday mood. A cranky Frankie is weeks overdue with her second set of twins. Twink, recently jilted and bitter about it, is in jail for inadvertently burning down half the town. A hot-flash-suffering Honey Raye is desperately trying to keep the Tabernacle of the Lamb’s Christmas Program from spiraling into chaos. But things were not looking too promising; Miss Geneva, the ousted director of the previous twenty-seven productions, is ruthless in her attempts to take over the show. The celebrity guest Santa Claus, played by Frankie’s long-suffering husband Dub, is passing a kidney stone. One of the shepherds refuses to watch over his flock by night without pulling his little red wagon behind him. And when Frankie lets slip a family secret that has been carefully guarded for decades, all hope for a successful Christmas program seems to be lost, even with an Elvis impersonator at the manger. In true Futrelle fashion, the feuding sisters find a way to pull together to present a Christmas program the citizens of Fayro will never forget.
The fifteenth anniversary Christmas Belles production will include original cast members Amy Sowers, Maria Sirgo, Kat Gilcrease and Melody Montez. Other cast members are Marilyn Moore as Miss Geneva Musgrave, Hallie Teague as Gina Jo Dubberly, Jennifer Marshall as Twink Futrelle, Allen Dorris as John Curtis Buntner, Ian Montez as Justin Waverly, and Matthew Johnson as Raynerd Chisum.
Christmas Belles will be onstage from December 1-December 17, 2023, at the historic Crighton Theatre, 234 N. Main, Conroe, Texas.
Tickets are available at stage-right.org or by calling the box office at (936) 441-7469. Do not be fooled by second market tickets sales online. No Stage Right tickets should cost more than $30.00 with a small fee if purchased online.