Photo courtesy of Mark Wilmes: Payton Zaske, Amanda Castro, Alexander Castro and Chris Cordes will perform in “Leaving Iowa” Friday-Sunday at the RTR Performing Arts Center in Tyler.

TYLER — The Tyler Area Arts Council is bringing a comedic production to the big stage this weekend when it puts on three shows of “Leaving Iowa,” portraying a family vacation full of eventful twists.

“This is a play that features a family of four, a mom, dad, brother and sister, and they’re taking a little trip from Iowa to Hannibal, Missouri,” show director Ryan Juutilainen said. “Along the way, they run into a number of characters, you could say, on their stops. It’s just a comedy of sorts that a lot of people can relate to (when) taking a family trip, and all the things that can happen.”

The cast includes a group of seven, including Alexander and Amanda Castro of Marshall, Chris Cordes and Ashton Stahl of Marshall, Payton Zaske from Lake Benton, and Mark Wilmes and Izzy Blagdon of Tyler.

“Leaving Iowa” is a production written by Tim Clue and Spike Manton, that runs about two hours long including an intermission.

A unique part of the show is the continuous changing time periods with the family, that presents more opportunities for comedic scenes.

“My favorite part about it is the transfer between the past and the present, (which) is prominent throughout this play. It goes back and forth between when brother and sister were kids, to adults,” Juutilainen said. “When they’re adults, their father had passed away and it’s upon the brother to find a final resting place as far as dad’s ashes. He’s trying to finish what the family needs to have done, (and) get dad into his final resting place.”

“This play jumps back and forth between the past, which is about 20 years, probably about 1990 to the early teens,” Juutilainen added. “From an artistic standpoint, I really like the challenges that it offers, and trying to present that to an audience visually.”

Along with the switching times and characters, the complexity has taken time for the actors to get the lines down, but Juutilainen noted that the end product is a humorous show that people will come to love.

“Rehearsal has been going really well. This is a really challenging piece for our actors. They have a lot of lines to memorize. So, we’ve had about four to five weeks to get the lines down. It’s starting to start to come along,” Juutilainen said. “It’s a wonderful comedy that I think people will enjoy.”

There’s also a handful of crew members from around the area helping to put the show on, working with props, costumes, lighting and more behind the scenes responsibilities.

The show will also bring a heartwarming feel throughout the production through scenes of family and expressing memories, as it continues through the storytelling of family vacations.

The three shows will take place at the Russell-Tyler-Ruthton Performing Arts Center in Tyler on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

The Friday and Saturday shows will take place at 7 p.m., while Sunday’s show will begin at 2 p.m. Tickets can be purchased at the door or online at onthestage.tickets/show/tyler-arts-council.

Tickets are $17 for adults, $15 for students and $12 for children.

“(People) can look forward to the comedy aspect, it’s a really zany comedy,” Juutilainen said. “We got actors, your four main ones that are the family, but then you got three actors that are playing all the characters that they meet along the way. That’s what really brings the comedy out.”