Posts Tagged ‘Clelia Sheppard’

To The Cast Of “Two Mrs. Carrolls”, Take Another Well Deserved Bow !

Thursday, September 16th, 2010

Historic Palace Theatre In Cape Charles, Virginia

My husband,  a friend and I spent a delightful Sunday afternoon last week  at the historic Palace Theatre in Cape Charles, Virginia  watching the matinee performance of  ” The Two Mrs. Carrolls”.   It was one of those cool, rainy,  constant drizzle  Sundays that usually make me feel like staying at home with a hot cup of tea,  listening to  The Splendid Table  on NPR or thumbing through the latest  Contessa or  Mario Batali cookbook, wondering if there is a delicious recipe of less than five ingredients that can be whipped together in  15 minutes ( good luck with that ! ) . However,  we had matinee tickets for the play and off we went,  rain or no,  to see the Mrs. Carrolls.

I was not familiar with that particular  play,  written by Martin Vale,  but the playbill indicates that it is a film noir classic from 1947 and starred Hunphrey Bogart and Barbara Stanwyck.   A  comic thriller set in the South of  France,  it revolves around  a lovey-dovey,  newly- wed English couple  ( but the husband,  an artist,  has a roving eye ),  the wife’s  old flame who visits a lot,  a beautiful young neighbor who also visits a lot and a very funny French  housekeeper,  Clemence ,   who can speak English but insists on speaking French throughout,  sans peur et sans reproche,  played with good comic effect by Susan Kovacs,  a  Blue Heron customer .    The wife soon falls mysteriously ill and the play is off and running !

Bravo ! Take Another Bow !

Staged and directed by Sheila Cardano,  whose daughter,  Clelia Sheppard,  is the Executive Director of  Art’s Enter,  the play came off wonderfully– the years of Sheila’s  hard work and efforts to put together a talented local amateur theatre group and stage crew and to renovate  the Palace Theatre  have really paid off handsomely.   The theatre,  now fully restored,  truly looks great.  ( Years of fund raisers together with grants and donations have restored this lovely Art Deco building to its former 1940’s glory.  Wow !  And you should see the seats now,  comfy and beautifully re-covered,  to the tune of  hundreds of  dollars each and the gorgeous golden wall murals.  Before and after pictures  really tell this  amazing restoration story and  illustrate how far the Palace Theatre and Art’s Enter have  come in these  last 15 years. )   On stage,  the props and scenery looked great– so authentic,  you felt like you really were in  an artist’s home.  Lots of well done lighting and sound effects too,  especially the mistral wind,  which blew on and off for much of  Act 3. 

Eva Takes The Lead Role And Dave Makes His Stage Debut

Best of all was the cast,  who vividly brought this  story to life.   Consisting of  nine amateur actors  from various  walks of  life, including a recreational director,  a vacation rental associate,  three  retirees,  a real estate sales agent,  a real estate broker,   a Deputy Commissioner of the Revenue  plus  Clelia Sheppard,  the Executive Director of Art’s Enter and one of the Eastern Shore’s great multi-taskers,  this cast  came together seamlessly to create the story’s realistic voice.   It was an excellent performance,  thoroughly enjoyed by the entire audience.   I realize that I am biased but the three of us really loved seeing our two colleagues from the Blue Heron Realty Co. Cape Charles office ,  Eva Noonan and Dave Kabler   ” do their thing”  on-stage,  both presented an accomplished performance,  with Eva  cast in the leading role of Sally Carroll.  And so,   to the entire cast,  at the next performance  go ahead and take an extra bow— you deserve it !