Flora Lynn [rating:5] (5/5 stars)
Jayme Catalano as Jeri Neal, Pamela Ciochetti as Dinah, Stephanie Ahlberg as Sheree, Hilda Roe as Lexie in The Dixie Swim Club
For their sixth and final production of the 2012-2013 season, Ross Valley Players presents The Dixie Swim Club, a comedy about friendship between women that lasts a lifetime. The play was written by Jessie Jones, Nicholas Hope and Jamie Wooten, (the writer and producer for many seasons for “The Golden Girls”) and is directed by long time RVP member, Linda Dunn.
The Dixie Swim Club tells the story of five southern women whose friendship began many years ago on their high school swim team. Every August, they get together for a long weekend to renew those relationships. Free from husbands, kids and jobs, they meet at the same beach cottage on North Carolina’s Outer Banks to do what girlfriends do best—laugh, gossip and snoop into each other’s lives. The story focuses on four of those weekends spanning 33 years.
The characters include Sheree (Stephanie Saunders Ahlberg), the spunky team captain; Dinah (Pamela Ciochetti), the wisecracking over achiever; Lexie (Hilda L. Roe), a pampered, outspoken southern belle determined to hold onto her looks and youth as long as possible—she appears with a different style hairdo every time we see her and she enjoys being married over and over again; the self deprecating and bitter Vernadette (Floriana Alessandria) who brings down the house with laughter at each appearance; and finally, Jeri Neal (Jayme Catalano), the naïve, eager to please member whose change in direction takes the group by surprise early on in the play.
Linda Dunn, serving as director, strikes the perfect tone with The Dixie Swim Club giving each cast member the freedom to relax a little bit on stage and truly realize the character they are playing.
The audience will enjoy eavesdropping on these unforgettable women as they advance in years and seeing how the friendship evolves. The Dixie Swim Club runs July 19-August 18, 2013, Thursday at 7:30 p.m.; Friday-Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday matinees at 2 p.m. All performances take place at the Barn Theatre, home of the Ross Valley Players, 30 Sir Francis Drake Blvd., Ross. Buy tickets online at rossvalleyplayers.com or call 415-456-9555.
Coming up next at Ross Valley Players to begin their 84th season will be Chapter Two by Neil Simon and directed by James Nelson, September 13-October 13, 2013.
Flora Lynn Isaacson
