Faith, patriotism and rocket science play serious parts in the
comedy opening Evansville Civic Theatre's 2007-2008 season.
A
questioning seminarian, a dutiful but reluctant draftee and
members of their family come together at the height of the
Vietnam War and on the eve of America's first manned lunar
landing in "King O' the Moon."
ELISA PETERSEN / Courier & Press
Eddie (Michael Hancock) shows off his
muscles to his mother (Lisa Garrett) in
"King O' the Moon."
ELISA PETERSEN / Courier & Press
MacKenzie Hudson, left, and Lauren Moats
play sisters-in-law Maureen and Annie
during a rehearsal of "King O' the Moon"
at Evansville Civic Theatre.
Set in 1969, "King O' the Moon" is Tom Dudzick's
10-years-after sequel to "Over the Tavern," which Civic
presented last year.
Count on issues in this play to reverberate for those old
enough to remember the war and to ring freshly for those paying
attention to the national debate over America's war in Iraq.
It does both for Civic's managing artistic director, Lynn
Kinkade.
Like Eddie, the young soldier set to leave for Vietnam in
this play, Kinkade was a draftee who went off to the Army in
1969, serving more out of sense of obligation than out of belief
in the war.
The director also can relate to Eddie's brother, Rudy, a
seminarian who questions his faith and who's taken part in peace
rallies protesting the war.
Like Rudy, by the time he was inducted into the Army, Kinkade
didn't support the war in Vietnam. He found himself torn between
personal opinions and a sense of law-abiding obligation.
Rather than try for a medical deferment, conscientious
objector's status or something more drastic — jail time or
moving to Canada — he reported for duty and spent 18 months in
Vietnam.
"I decided to go in (the Army), even though I was very much
against the war," says Kinkade.
This play looks at a family dealing with those divisive
issues, but also caught up in the sense of possibility
represented by man's first steps on the moon.
"It all sounds very serious," says Kinkade, "but it's also a
comedy."
The show brings back several characters from "Over the
Tavern," but only a couple of the actors from Civic's production
of that show.
Lisa Garrett, a Civic veteran, is back as Ellen Pazinski, the
family matriarch, now a widow, five years after the death of
Chet, her husband in "Over the Tavern."
Clay Prindle, who played Eddie in last year's show, returns
this time as his younger brother Georgie, now a nearly grown
young man with the mind and emotions of a 5-year-old.
Michael Hancock, a Civic newcomer, plays Eddie, the reluctant
warrior; and Andrew York, a founding member of the Gibson County
Theatre Company, plays Rudy, returning home to deliver the
"State of the Family" address on the fifth anniversary of his
father's death.
Other characters include Maureen, Eddie's pregnant wife, and
Walter, who has been doing more than just managing the tavern
since Chet's death.
The comedy stands on its own, assures Kinkade. "Patrons need
not have seen 'Over the Tavern' to enjoy 'King O' the Moon.'"
