In the cluttered home of the Sycamore family, people of all sorts enjoy the bizarre yet comfortable lifestyles of candy makers, dancers, printing press enthusiasts, and playwrights until their youngest, Alice, comes home with a young gentleman.
Alice is dreading what many young people fear most about their love lives, the meeting of their families. Worlds collide in hilarious and unexpected ways while Alice and her beau Tony try to maintain order among the chaos!
Scenes
ACT 1 Scene 1 - The Vanderhof/Sycamore Household in June
ACT 1 Scene 2 - Later that evening
intermission
ACT 2 - The Vanderhof/Sycamore Household one week later
ACT 3 - The next day
Directors' Notes:
In bizarre strokes of serendipity, nothing could have been more appropriate for Winnipeg Mennonite Theatre to produce than "You Can't Take It With You." Staging this play in the ever-looming climate of a pandemic, several blizzards, and now a flood, had its own brand of bizarre twists and turns akin to the chaotic lifestyle of the Sycamores. At one point, during my second round of Covid in as many years, I had to attend rehearsal via Zoom and I thought to myself, "never would I have imagined doing something so ridiculous; but for the sake of my theatre family, I would gladly do it again." I feel as though that aligns perfectly with how our characters view and treat each other at times throughout the story.
It also worked out quite well that I took on the role of director for this show shortly after my own wedding. I had my fresh, personal experiences of having our families meet, the quirks of getting to know and love in-laws, the apprehension of having a potentially embarrassing incident with my side of the family, as well as the realization that we are so very loved on both sides of the family, and that is all that will ever matter. It was a powerful thing to go through a scene and then relate a personal anecdote to the actors of how an eerily similar type of mishap has happened in real life (namely the reminder for a certain family member to go and put on some pants the first time I met him). I won't say more, but if you scan the audience before the show, you may notice a few people laughing or grimacing extra hard at these directors' notes.
Behind the scenes, our immensely talented actors have been able to demonstrate the true strength of community theatre; that being our internally motivated perseverance. I am so incredibly proud of each and every one of our cast and crew for making it to rehearsals faithfully, staying home when sick to protect the others, accommodating the necessary absences, and pressing on in spite of unideal conditions. A huge kudos goes to two of our actors for taking on roles very late into our rehearsals, one of whom accepted a role just this Tuesday. I am beyond thrilled to be back in a live theatre; we have come together as a family, quirks and all, to keep our passion alive for 50 years as a theatre company. Here is to many more years of providing the best of community theatre, Long Live The Arts!