‘Well, doggies!’ ‘The Beverly Hillbillies’ brings country charm to Union Mine
A seasoned cast and crew have channeled their inner hillbilly for Union Mine High School’s latest production. “The Beverly Hillbillies” opens at Theater at the Mine Nov. 8.
From beginning to end, every part of the theater department is full of experience and team chemistry. Director Ryan Pullen has directed more than a dozen plays since he took the lead of the department six years ago. His cast also has several leaders.
Gracie Lefebvre plays country girl Emaline Fetty and has previously had roles in “Chicago” and “Little Shop of Horrors.”
“I had to learn a country accent but also switch in an instant to go back to a regular accent,” said Lefebvre, vice president of the Drama Club. “It was a lot of preparation and focusing on the different aspects of both accents.”
Dustin Thompson plays Granny in “The Beverly Hillbillies” just a month after playing Macbeth.
Ethan Rezentes, a sophomore, played Macbeth’s right hand man Banquo and now takes on the role of Jed Clampett, the family patriarch who discovered that “bubbling crude” that led the Clampett family to Beverly Hills.
“It’s been a challenge, especially with some of the bigger roles having a lot of lines,” Rezentes said. “But it’s good, especially in the arts, to push yourself sometimes and challenge yourself to make yourself a better actor.”
Ryleigh Praker stars as Clampett daughter Elly May. Joel Costello is nephew Jethro and Bella Bachman is Gloria Mundy, a student at the Pennyweather Academy. She also serves as the play’s publicist.
“’The Beverly Hillbillies’ is quite exciting and funny. Basically a bunch of Hillbillies come upon oil and a bunch of money and they move to Beverly Hills,” Bachman said. “People are trying to integrate them into the Beverly Hills type of lifestyle and they aren’t quite fitting in.”
Bachman has performed in several plays, including “Chicago” and “Noises Off!” She said working with the same core group of performers and director has helped the cast learn roles quickly and perform multiple plays each semester.
“[Pullen] is very detail oriented and makes sure everything is flowing together,” Bachman said. “He is a really good director.”
Pullen said typically the actors and crew have six weeks of rehearsal time, but “The Beverly Hillbillies” team had only four weeks because the theater department decided to put on “Macbeth” earlier in the school year. “I’m really proud of the kids because they are operating at a professional level,” Pullen said. “We had a pretty compressed rehearsal schedule for this. We had a lot of help from our parent volunteers and our theater boosters association.”
Aside from only having four weeks, some rehearsals were also cut because of the power outages. Even then, the cast banded together to get in some rehearsal time.
“That was something we had to work around,” Rezentes said. “We actually had a rehearsal where we borrowed a generator and we brought in some lights where we could have costumes and run through scenes. There were some rehearsals we had to cancel but we were able to still come in at least once or twice.”
Having performers with a lot of experience came in handy at that point. Bachman said every time they hit the floor they get a lot done.
Pullen told the Democrat he selected “The Beverly Hillbillies” because it was a childhood favorite, especially the movie released in 1993.
Thompson, aka Granny, said the movie is also one of his favorites.
“The movie for me and my family has been one of those classic family movies that we watch every so often that we’ve had forever on DVD,” he said.
