One Thirty Productions, Dallas' only all-matinee production company, opened its second season October 29, 2008 at the BathHouse Cultural Center on White Rock Lake with an original play by Alan Bailey (Smoke on the Mountain) and Dallas writer/actress, Ronnie Claire Edwards.
The play opens on a delightful period set by One Thirty producer, Larry Randolph. The scene is the back veranda and yard of Laura Lee McInerny (She is hosting a meeting of the town garden club attended by Glendine Slocumb (Marty van Kleek), Bobrita Tolliver (Sandra Looney), and Bobrita's sister, Violet Montgomery (Gene Raye Price).
Wedding Belles is a character-driven play revolving around an 18-year-old orphan, Ima Jean Tatum (Leslie Patrick) who has left the orphanage to travel to Eufalla Springs to meet her soldier boyfriend at the bus station and travel to Galveston to get married before he ships out to war. But alas, he isn't on his scheduled bus. Laura Lee, who is all things to all people in Eufalla Springs, meets up with Ima Jean at the bus station and brings her home as Laura Lee's next project: planning her wedding. Excitement reigns among the members of the garden club as they make elaborate plans for Ima Jean's nuptials.
When Ima Jean still has not heard from her fiance, disappointment is felt by all. But after a few twists and turns, Wedding Belles ends on a happy note.
The sub-plot revolves around Violet's 30-year residence with Bobrita and her husband, a situation that has long since worn thin.
Edwards has a good ear for folksy language and pens some very funny dialogue, as she also did in her recent one-woman show, The True Story of the Incarceration of Little Egypt, at Theater Three's black box.
Since this is Wedding Belles' initial production, Edwards said she plans to do some re-writes. The only flaw in this play is the abrupt ending. A smoother segue into this finale is all the play needs to be ready for prime time and a long life in community theaters.
Directed by Larry Randolph, the staging has a balanced flow. Myers-Morgan does a superb turn as the busybody host and over-all planner of everything in the town (her reasons why imbue the play with a psychological lesson in human behavior).
Van Kleek and Price are acting pros with a long list of stage credits, and both turn in great characterizations. Looney is quite believable as the beleaguered sister, and her interaction with Price is spot on. Patrick plays the hapless, optimistic orphan to perfection.
