Jackson High School students to perform 'The Curious Savage' tonight, tomorrow

"The Curious Savage" doesn't sound like a comedy, but it plays out as one, said director Bob Clubbs of Jackson High School's upcoming production, which opens tonight.

"I would say that the play is really about friends that become family," Clubbs said.

The central character, Mrs. Ethel P. Savage, played by Madison Dowdy, is an heiress who had married a man with three young children, years ago.

"Those children never warmed up to her as a mother," Clubbs said.

When her husband died and his fortune passed to her, she was going to set up a foundation to honor him, but his children weren't happy with that, wanting the money for themselves, Clubbs added.

Ethel Savage, played by Madison Dowdy, reads about her family in the newspaper during a scene in a dress rehearsal for Jackson's fall play, "The Curious Savage," Tuesday at Jackson High School.BEN MATTHEWS

The stepchildren, Titus (Kade Groh), Lily Belle (Lex Hanks) and Samuel (Henry Bonney), try to get their stepmother declared mentally unfit so they can inherit the money instead, and she ends up at a treatment facility called The Cloisters, Clubbs said.

"She meets other patients that live there, and they become her family," Clubbs said.

Florence Williams (Eva Clubbs), Fairy May (Jasmine Jones), Hannibal (William Long), Mrs. Paddy (Breanna Gallian) and Jeffrey (Landon Felter) are the patients who rally around Savage, Clubbs said.

The play really becomes about how these five other patients become her family more than her stepchildren, Clubbs added.

Doctor Emmett (Dominique Unterreiner), who oversees the residents' wing at The Cloisters, and Miss Willie (Breanna Niedbalski), a nurse, round out the cast.

Stage manage Jake Todd, left, helps Eva Clubbs with hair and makeup backstage before the start of dress rehearsal for Jackson's fall play, The Curious Savage Oct. 10, 2017 at Jackson High School.BEN MATTHEWS ~ bmatthews@semissourian.com

"It's odd to me," Clubbs said. "Nothing about it sounds really funny, but it is a sweet little comedy. All of the characters, the patients all have such vibrant, unique personalities. Each of them has comic moments as she gets to know them."

Clubbs said rehearsals began just after Labor Day after auditions were held in August.

The play's running time is about 90 minutes, three acts with an intermission.

"The Curious Savage" will be performed at 7 p.m. tonight and Friday at the Jackson High School auditorium. Tickets are $5 at the door. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. All seating is general admission.

mniederkorn@semissourian.com

Ethel Savage, left, played by Madison Dowdy, looks towards a teddy bear on the floor during a scene in a dress rehearsal for Jackson's fall play, The Curious Savage, Tuesday at Jackson High School.BEN MATTHEWS ~ bmatthews@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3630