Mixing comedy and religion - is that OK? How about if you add some thick
Southern accents and a refrigerator?
Remember a while back when someone on eBay was selling a piece of Toast that appeared to have the image of the Virgin Mary burned into it? Or copycat toast-makers who claimed to have toasty images of the Last Supper and Elvis? They went too far with that Elvis thing.
But anyway, now we have the theater department at Jackson Community College of Jackson, Michigan presenting a play entitled "Messiah on the Frigidaire".
A small South Carolina town is thrust into the national spotlight when what seems to be the image of Jesus appears on a refrigerator in a trailer park. The comedy and drama that follows provides the storyline for Jackson Community College’s production of “Messiah on the Frigidaire" by John Culbertson, being presented the last two weekends of October.
The discovery of the image by Lou Ann Hightower, her husband Dwayne, and her best friend Betsy, sets into motion a frenzy of conflict, communion and good old fashioned commerce. When the National Investigator turns the appearance into front-page headlines, their trailer park becomes a mecca for miracle seekers, soul searchers and disciples with a decidedly political agenda. At the urging of the town’s business leaders, Betsy pretends to get messages from the appliance-based apparition, and the crowds multiply like loaves and fishes. Through the ordeal, the three undergo an evolution in their relationships with each other, and they are forced to come to grips with their lowly status in the caste system of the rural south. In a region where religion is as much a part of life as grits and cotton fields, God surely moves in mysterious ways. ....see full Press Release here
From a local news story:
For the cast, half the fun of the show has been speaking in a Southern drawl and learning to pronounce "police" as "PO-leece," but they also like that there's more to it than jokes about trailer parks.
"It makes you think after you're done watching it, it really does," said Jimi Bommarito, who plays city Councilman Larry Williamson.
Well that's good, I'm glad to see there's a method to their madness, a moral to the story. It sounds funny - if you're lucky enough to be near Jackson, MI (which I'm not), y'all check it out and then y'all come back now and tell us all about it, ya hear? Speaking of refrigerators, I think I need to see what's in or on mine.....oh my goodness, it's Elvis! Now I'm all shook up.
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