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This play, written by Joseph Zettelmaier, is kind of like Oceans Eleven with nerds. It tells the story of some die hard Star Wars fans who decide to rob a Kenner warehouse of all of it's original Star Wars memorabilia.
As a life long Star Wars fan I absolutely loved this play. I saw A New Hope in 1977 in a drive-in theater with my dad. In January 1997 I was at the Hollywood premier when they re-released A New Hope and I got to shake Mark Hamill's hand. In 1999 I was standing in line at West Acres for episode I on my wife's due date... I knew my new son would be a born Star Wars fan and he would wait so I could see the new movie (he actually waited until May 25th!).
The set is in a basement and there are Star Wars memorabilia all over. The entire collection belongs to a 9 year old from Moorhead named Finn.
This play features some local well known talents combined with some new faces and they all work very well together.
We were even treated to an intro by Darth Vader himself.
Clayton Perala always brings his A game to the stage and I always love seeing him perform. He portrays Dave, the guy who plans the whole heist. He of course plans this while living in his mom's basement surrounded by his own collection of Star Wars memorabilia. Clayton has some of the best facial expressions in the business, especially when talking with his mom or smelling the files. His opening light saber battle brought back many memories... some more recent than others. Clayton interacted so well with Max (Cord Redding) and you truly will believe they are lifelong best friends.
Cord Redding as Max so so good in his theatre debut. As Dave's best friend, and the worrier of the group, Max has some great stage moments. From his chewbacca battle cry, to his arguments with Kendra, he really brings this character to life. His panicking while waiting for Carter and Kendra is wonderful. I do hope that Cord continues with Theatre, I would love to see his talent on stage again.
Carter is portrayed by Zachary Lutz, another local favorite of mine. Zachary is another that always shines on stage, he is such a great talent. His character is great at being the voice of reason when everyone else is arguing. His speech towards the end of Act I is a highlight. I also loved his performance towards the end of ACT 2.
Whitney McClain as Kendra is great. She plays Carter's girlfriend, and the only one in the group who isn't a true Star Wars fan. The scene when she mistakenly refers to it as Star Trek is hilarious. She has some great moments with Carter and even a few real good ones with Max.
Dave's Mom is portrayed by Jeanie Smith-Murphy. Although you never see her during the show, think of Howard's mom from Big Bang Theory, she does a great job. She portrays the over bearing perfectly and I love her interactions with Clayton.
Matthew Hallaway as "The Big Man" was another new actor I have not seen before. He did a great job in his FMCT debut as the crime boss who also happens to be a Star Wars fanatic. Hopefully I will see Matthew in many more FMCT productions in the future.
Congrats to Director Matthew Dryburgh and the rest of the Production team on bringing us this fun and entertaining play.
This is a fun, and mostly family friendly show (Some language). Even non Star Wars fans will enjoy this one.
You should still have one more weekend to check this out!
Check out the opening crawl from the play...
https://fmct.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/ACT-opening-crawl.mp4
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