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Taking on a classic comedy

SMSU?Theater Department to perform ‘You Can’t Take It With You’

MARSHALL – Alice Sycamore falls in love with a young man from her work. But she has a dilemma – how does she introduce him and his parent to her eccentric family?

The Southwest Minnesota State University Theater Department is presenting the comedy “You Can’t Take It With You” at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 25-29 and 2 p.m. Oct. 30 in the SMSU Fine Arts Theatre. The show is being directed by SMSU theater professor Mike Lenz.

Lenz said the theater department has a map of what the students do for shows. It’s a four-year rotation that insures each student coming through the theater program will have a chance to experience a wide variety of plays and acting styles, Lenz said.

“This is the year for them to do a Golden Age comedy,” Lenz said. “You Can’t Take It With You” is from 1936. “It literally fits.”

There’s a lot of timing in the show, Lenz said, that’s the big thing. It’s also a broad comedy, he said.

“The play is very complicated, it has a lot of intricate cue lines,” Lenz said.

According to an SMSU news release, the synopsis of “You Can’t Take It With You” is: “The Sycamores’ more conventional daughter Alice falls in love with Tony, son of the straitlaced Kirbys. When the Kirbys come to dinner at the Sycamore house, all kinds of mayhem breaks loose, throwing Alice and Tony’s romance into doubt. Toss in a few government agents, an exiled Russian grand duchess, and a drunken actress, and it’s anybody’s guess how it will all work out!”

Morgan Benson plays Penny Sycamore, Alice’s mother.

“There’s a joke almost every single minute,” Benson said about the show. She said the audience will love it.

Benson said she developed her character as kind of an awkward mom but very loving.

“She welcomes anyone to the house,” Benson said. “She’s a fun character.”

Portraying Alice is Ta McConkey. She thinks she and Alice are similar.

“Her first line is ‘the princess has entered her palace,'” McConkey said. “I think she’s a lot like me.”

Dean Zinda plays Alice’s fiance, Tony Kirby. He said he first did Tony’s lines with a little sass to them. He was told that Tony as a character needs to be incredibly earnest, he added.

Zinda said the show is fun to do.

“It’s an interesting, quirky mix between eccentricism and the mundane outsider view,” Zinda said.

Oak Kelsey plays Martin Vanderhof, Penny’s father. To get into the role, he said he kind of takes cues from the script, the little physical things his character has.

“I don’t want to go overboard,” Kelsey said. He said he tries to make Martin somewhat “naturalistic.” “Think of Fred Mertz.”

Kelsey and the other cast members said the show has been enjoyable.

“Comedies are fun to do, they’re rewarding,” Kelsey said. “It’s a fun cast.”

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