BELLE FOURCHE—Oh no—the local newspaper had a misprint, and customers wanted what the ad promised! What could go wrong? Another delightful presentation of 1903 Reader’s Theatre Company at the Tri-State Museum and Visitor Center was held on Feb. 20 at 7 p.m. and Feb. 21 at 2 p.m.
The play, Sly’s Grocery…and the Silver-Plated Cake Server, was written by Museum Director and playwright Kristi Thielen. The play was set in Belle Fourche in 1932. The action unfolded over six scenes.
Set in Sly’s Grocery Store, the owner of the store, played by Angela Hastings, ordered too much flour. In an attempt to get rid of the extras, she ran an ad in the paper for a giveaway of a free chromium-plated cake server from Silver Brothers Flour with a purchase of five pounds of flour.
In a mixup, the newspaper confused Silver Brothers for Silver-Plated and thus offered a much more expensive silver-plated cake server for free with each five-pound bag of flour purchased. The comical antics of the townspeople trying to get their hands on a free silver-plated cake server ensued.
With more than 80 plays to her credit, Thielen has perfected the art of crafting fun, historical, and witty scripts. She completed this one in roughly two weeks. “I knew that I wanted to set something at Sly’s—I love grocery stores—there’s so much stuff and people coming and going! So I knew I wanted to do something at Sly’s. Then I was going through newspapers and I saw the one that talked about the legitimate giveaway that they had in 1931,” she explained. “It was Gold Medal Flour, but I didn’t want to use that because of the trademark. But they had it, and apparently it went well. That doesn’t work for a comedy—things have to go wrong! So I thought, what could go wrong? Then I came up with the rest of it.”
Being a museum director, Thielen has access to a lot of history, which she is able to use in her writing. “Much of what you hear is accurate—the beginning of the play when Hattie reads a newspaper piece about a blizzard, that is accurate. The prices that you hear, those are all accurate…they came right from the paper,” she said.
The play consisted of ten roles. The actors just got the script and started working on their parts five days before the production. Those involved include Angela Hastings, Mrs. Voorhees; Katharina Steeves, Hattie Gridlock; Lynnea Luebben, Grace Trenkl; Samuel Savery, Orville Smoot; Bobbe Ward, Effie Hartwell; Colleen Anderson, Irene Bennett; Sheila West, Marjorie Whaley; Joan Gerkin, Florence Steel; Blaine Anderson, Dr. Cecil Ferguson; and Patrick Luebben, William Newmann.
1903 Reader’s Theatre allows actors to read from their scripts, but they still perform on stage, utilize costumes, and have a set. The crew included playwright/director Kristi Thielen; sound, Kim Reausaw; and house manager and lights, Jean Maher.
Admission to the production was $2 per person or free with museum membership.
The next 1903 Reader’s Theatre will be Christmas in the Cave Hills and is set for Dec. 18 and 19.
Read the full issue of the Belle Fourche Beacon by clicking here.
