Leading Ladies opening
COTTONWOOD SHORES — Actor Mark Fernandes has some big shoes to fill.
“We actually had to special-order size 16 women’s heels for him,” Hill Country Community Theatre Executive Director Jim McDermott said.
You read right: Fernandes and co-star Glenn Bird will done heels and wigs for this week’s gala opening of “Leading Ladies” at HCCT’s stage, 4003 FM 2147.
The play, penned by popular comedic playwright Ken Ludwig, centers on two down-on-their-luck Shakespearean actors attempting to con a dying woman into leaving them her fortune.
“She wants to find her two long-lost nephews, and she has a lot of money,” said McDermott, who also has a role in the play. “The two guys decide to impersonate her nephews, but come to find out that it’s not nephews she’s looking for, but nieces.”
Audiences can see where this is going: The two actors are forced to cross-dress in an attempt to fool the woman and her family into accepting them as long-lost relatives.
“When they show up, no one knows who they are,” McDermott said. “There’s romantic entanglements and mistaken identities. Then the guys start to fall in love with the woman’s actual nieces who are there, but because they’re cross-dressed, they can’t give up their identities. It creates a lot of tension.”
Such fast-paced storytelling is par for the course from Ludwig, who also wrote “Lend Me a Tenor,” a similar story of mistaken identity featured on HCCT’s stage in 2006.
“Ken Ludwig is one of the more successful contemporary comedic playwrights working today,” McDermott said. “He’s been a very successful Broadway-produced comedic writer. This particular play appealed to us because it was a Ken Ludwig play, and they tend to be well-written and well-received.”
Though it’s only a couple of years old, “Leading Ladies” has received rave reviews at other theaters across the country, McDermott said.
“It got the great reviews, and the fact that it has an eight-person cast appealed to us as well,” he said. “We have to balance our seasons with large casts and smaller groups.”
“Leading Ladies” is the first performance of HCCT’s 2008-2009 season, and McDermott said auditions for the next show, “Driving Miss Daisy,” are set for later this month.
“‘Driving Miss Daisy’ is actually a long one-act play, so we’re also going to have a shorter one-act that we’ll present on the same night,” he said. “We’ll be holding auditions for both Sept. 29-30. We’re looking for two men and one woman for each play.”
Tickets for “Leading Ladies” are $15 for adults and $7 for students. Performances start Thursday and run through Oct. 5, with Thursday-Saturday shows at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday matinees at 2:15 p.m.
For tickets, call (830) 798-8944.