Oak Street Playhouse serving up 'Crazy Ladies' for Christmas - Dec. 6-15

photo Patti Gross, left, and Denise Frye, right, as elderly sisters, and their doctor, played by Michael Tulloss, center, gaze at the fallen grocery boy, played by Justin Bridges, in "Those Crazy Ladies in the House on the Corner" at the Oak Street Playhouse.

IF YOU GO* What: "Those Crazy Ladies in the House on the Corner."* When: 6:30 p.m. Friday and Saturdays, Dec. 6-7, 12-14; 1:30 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 15.* Where: Flo Summitt Theatre, Oak Street Playhouse, First-Centenary United Methodist Church, Oak and Lindsay streets.* Admission: $20 (Dec. 6-7 and 12); $22 (Dec. 13-15).* Phone: 423-756-2428.* Website: www.oakstreetplayhouse.com.

Take three talkative, widowed sisters, put them in the same home and stir.

That's the premise for "Those Crazy Ladies in the House on the Corner," the Christmas dinner-theater presentation that opens Friday, Dec. 6, in the Flo Summitt Theatre at Oak Street Playhouse in First-Centenary United Methodist Church.

The comedy continues through next weekend, Dec. 12-15.

"Comedy is much harder than drama," says Michael Tulloss, the theater's managing producer who also has a role in the production. "It requires a lot of very specific timing to make it funny and get the point across."

The script by Pat Cook, he says, is filled with "a lot of great, little one-liners. It's not just slapstick."

Indeed, the threat of three elderly women losing their home, which is one of the plot twists, is not a laughing matter.

"That happens to many people who don't have a way to combat that," says Tulloss. Fortunately, he says, the script allows the women a humorous way to counter the threat.

Character development, he says, has been important for director Jerry Draper to help give the audience "a feel for the individuality of each sister."

"Those Crazy Ladies in the House on the Corner" has a cast of nine, including several actors who have acted in Oak Street Playhouse shows before, one who returns after a long absence and several new to the theater.

The play, Tulloss says, ends at Christmastime, leaving the audience with "a good holiday feeling."

Contact Clint Cooper at ccooper@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6497.

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