Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

By COURTNEY FLECK

(Defiance, Oh) The Defiance College theater program will be performing “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” on November 21st – 24th in Schomburg auditorium in Dana Hall.  It is free to all Defiance College students as long as you have your student I.D with you.  Thursday – Saturday the performances are at 8:00pm and on Sunday the show is a 2:00pm matinee.

The cast is wonderful, with Miss Emily Wallace as Christine Colgate, Steve Switz as Lawrence Jameson and Nolan Fout as Freddy Benson!  Rehearsals are going great and the show will be fantastic! So mark your calendars, you’re not going to want to miss this!

“Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” is based on the film made in 1988.  It centers on two con men living in the French Riviera.  Lawrence Jameson makes his lavish living by talking rich ladies out of their money. Freddy Benson more humbly swindles women by waking their compassion with fabricated stories about his grandmother’s failing health.

After meeting on a train, they attempt to work together only to discover this small French town isn’t big enough for the two of them.  They agree on a settlement: the first one to extract $50,000 from a young female target, heiress Christine Colgate, wins and the other must leave town.  A hilarious battle of cons ensues that will keep audiences laughing, humming and guessing to the end.  The show has been described as stylish, sexy, irreverent, and “Broadway musical comedy heaven”.

According to Emily Wallace, the show is not family appropriate, “it is definitely a PG-13.”  The cast is a nice mix of current Defiance College students, freshmen through senior, one Defiance College alumni, class of 2011, and a couple community members.

Directed by Danae Jimenez, the cast has little experience working with her in past dance/theatre experiences. Only three cast members have ever worked with her before.  New to the Defiance College theater program, Mrs. Jimenez is working to build relationships with the cast.  Mrs. Jimenez has also worked with students during their production of “Almost, Maine” last spring here on campus.

“The cast loves it. We think it is clever, funny, and that it has a lot of neat and surprising twists and turns!  I personally think this will be the most fun role I have ever played” Emily Wallace told me.  I decided to ask her a couple more questions.

Courtney: How do you think the cast feels about being together in this setting for the first time?

Emily: I’ll be honest, at first there was a little bit of tension.  Especially for those who have only known Danae as a friend before, it was hard to transition into a cast/director relationship.  But now we do Roses and Thorns every night to close rehearsal.  The rose is the best part of our day and the thorn is the worst. It is so great to see how many of us say that our rose is theatre related.  As cheesy as it sounds, every cast I have been a part of ends up being a big family in the end.  This specific cast has become a family faster than any other I’ve been a part of.

Courtney: What exactly is Rose and Thorn?

Emily: I kind of said in there.  The rose is the best part of our day and the thorn is the worst.  So like last night I said my rose was seeing the dance assistant that came in to work with us because I knew her from a previous show and had missed her, and I said my thorn was the headache I got from dancing so much.

With a great cast, fun bonding games and an interesting performance, “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” is sure to brighten any weekend!