Grandpa Vanderhof is the family patriarch, the former businessman who realized he wasn’t enjoying life ahd chose happiness instead of the obsessive pursuit of wealth. Brad Perot definitely has a bit of a quirky flair about him as Grandpa. His genes and example have a big impact on the other quirky members of his family – most notably his daughter Penny. Savana Wilson is a lively character with a sweetly naïve bluntness who turned into a playwright when a typewriter was accidentally delivered to the house eight years before. She has a penchant for writing plays sprinkled with sex, which she never finishes before moving onto another script. Morgan Movius is her daughter Essie who never misses a chance to dance and twirl with uninhibited enthusiasm.

Penny’s other daughter is the more ‘normal’ member of the family, Alice Sycamore, who is working in a regular office job. Danielle Brownell does a nice job of portraying the young woman who is both a little embarrassed by her zany family and very much in love with them – but also anxious about making a good impression on what may be her future in-laws. Bowled over by her family is Tony Kirby. We relate easily to the talented Justin Mark’s performance as the guy who quickly appreciates the beauty of the Vanderhof family and is eager to become a part of this new family. Whether his own parents want to be tied to it or not.

Mr. and Mrs. Kirby make their feelings for the Vanderhof family evident from the moment they enter the Vanderhof home and see everyone at their quirkiest best. John York is the corporate executive who is uncomfortable but polite, but whose composure gets seriously shaken when Essie’s melodramatic and morbidly Russian dance instructor (Alex Furstenberg) gives Mr. Kirby an impromptu wrestling takedown. As Mrs. Kirby, Kirsten Hatch has a great knack for expressing her extreme disdain for the family with realistic subtlety befitting her high station. When Penny makes light of Mrs. Kirby’s hobby of spiritualism as being “silly,” you can tell Mrs. Kirby has never been more socially stunned. A few other colorful characters who might give the Kirby in-laws pause include the very drunk actress Gay Wellington (Cammie Morgan) who Penny brings home to act in her plays, and Lia Pfliger as a Russian duchess now working as a cook who speaks and carries herself with a comically serious disposition you’d expect from an over-the-top member of the former Russian royalty.

Performed November 8 - 17, 2007.

Photos by Don Nowlin.

Rob Hopper
National Youth Theatre