BUM PLAYERS TO PRESENT
"THE BUTLER DID IT"

The BUM Players of Brockport, NY are preparing for this year's dessert-theater production of “The Butler Did It”, a comedy/thriller written by Walter Marks and Peter Marks. The play will be presented at the Brockport United Methodist Church Fellowship Hall, 92 Main Street at Erie Street in Brockport. Performances are April 23, 24, 30, and May 1 and all begin at 7:30pm. As usual, a scrumptious dessert is included in the price of admission which this year is $7 general, $5 seniors (65 and over), and $15 single-household family maximum.

The play, which is presented with permission from Dramatists Play Service, Inc., is about down-on-his-luck playwright Anthony J. Lefcourt. Lefcourt (played by BUM Player founder Gary “Turk” Thomas) has high hopes that his latest whodunit will resuscitate his moribund career and result in a triumphant return to Broadway if only he can find a “handle”. Unfortunately for him, the other characters Natalie Simpson (Cynthia Hansen), Sam Farber (David Hansen), Robert Lattimore (Paul Kimball), Michael Severino (Steve Richardson), and Claudia Barnes (Jessica Haines) all have their own agendas and issues, leading to a series of hilarious situations and ultimately resulting in the untimely and unexpected demise of one of the characters.

The play's Director is David Odrzywolski with Assistant Director John “Mack” McCarthy. Lexie MacLarty serves as the production's Stage Manager. The Dessert Coordinators are Debbie Thomas and Kathy Odrzywolski. For tickets, please call (585) 637-4240, weekdays 9 AM until noon..

Brief history of the BUM Players:

• 1990: Birth of BUM Players; First drama performed during worship of Laity Sunday in October.
   
• 1991: Because of the success and enjoyment by the congregation of our first attempt, our second drama was performed in place of sermon for Palm Sunday. This became a "tradition" for the next seven years. In other words, we did two short dramas a year-one on Laity Sunday and one on Palm Sunday. Some of the more memorable dramas have been: "The Other Carpenter", "The Sobbing Stone", "The Floundering Church", "The Trial of Jess Goodenough", "Soldiers and Souls" and "The Key".
   
• 1992: The first ideas of a dinner-theater fund-raising opportunity were explored. We discovered that our program was too young to be supported by enough people to make such a dream feasible at that time.
   
• 1997: A big year for the group! Because of a program entitled "Share Your Talents", which was designed for all church members to share their particular gifts to help the church out of a bit of a financial crunch, our idea of a dinner-theater was resurrected in a scaled-down version as dessert-theater. We committed ourselves to building a stage in the Fellowship Hall, presenting a full-length comedy, and inviting the community. This served three main purposes: as outreach in bringing others into our church, as financial in allowing us to contribute to the "wish list" of church programming, and in allowing us a full outlet for our theatrical talents. The first play, "Scrambled Eggs", was a huge success and led to this becoming an annual event. Subsequent plays have been: "Aaron Slick from Punkin Crick", "The Meddlesome Maid", "Look Who's Laughing", and "More Than Meets the Eye". In April, 2002, the BUM Players will present Neil Simon's "The Odd Couple". We look forward to the challenge of doing such a well-known comedy. Also in 1997, during Laity Sunday, the BUM Players presented the "World Premier" of the original play written by Gary Thomas. Entitled "Soldiers and Souls", it was about soldiers discovering God in the midst of the horrors of the Vietnam War.
   
• 1998: This year saw the growth of our "Drama Worship" from a couple times a year to the introduction of a more regular "mini-drama" (around 5 minute vignettes) as the introduction of the pastor's sermon themes. The first occurrence of these was during our church-wide 50-Day Spiritual Adventure entitled "The Church You've Always Longed For".
   
• 2001: This year has seen further changes in format. Pastor Theva's desire to foster the promotion of small groups within the church has led to the BUM Players being made responsible for an entire service once every three months in which they will revert to their sermon-replacing dramas rather than their theme-introducing mini-dramas. This will likely produce challenges, but, with God's help, challenges we look forward to conquering!
   
• October, 2003: Enlisted by the Brockport Kiwanis Club to assist in a fundraiser for them by performing an audience-participation murder mystery titled "Murder, Maestro, Please", by Penny Warner.
   
• October, 2004: As an annual event, we again performed an audience-participation murder mystery for the Brockport Kiwanis Club, but this one was written by the BUM Player's own Gary Thomas. And was titled "Mask Murder at Mack's".
   
• April, 2006: Neil Simon's "The Sunshine Boys".
   
• October - 2007: Brockport Kiwanis Club-sponsored audience-participation murder mystery. October 19 - 20 and October 26 - 27. All Shows at 7:30 PM. At A.D. Oliver Middle School "LGI" (Large Group Instruction Room - North Entrance), Brockport, NY.
   
• April - 2008: "Plausible Deniability". April 25 and 26. May 2 and 3.
  
  
• April - 2009: "Celebration". April 24 and 25. May 1 and 2.