Verge Theater continues its lively season of hilarious stage entertainment with some great shows and performances! Here’s a look at what’s happening!
Jimmy’s First Christmas on Parole
Get ready for the holidays with A Little House Christmas. James Devita has written a heart warming story for the holidays, based on the Books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Eight days before Christmas, the Ingalls (Pa, Ma, Mary and Laura) have invited some folks to dinner to celebrate completion of their new home. The guests include Laura’s nemesis, the stuck-up Nellie Oleson and her mother Mrs. Oleson; the rambunctious mountain man Edwards; two of the Ingalls girls’ cousins, Nick and Peter; and Pa’s younger brother George, who ran away at 14 to join the Army as a drummer boy in the Civil War. The happy gathering includes stories and dancing until a freakishly severe early winter thunderstorm brings the celebration to an end. Will the guests make it home safely? Will the Ingalls family be able to get to town for supplies? And most importantly to the Ingalls girls, will Santa be able to make it across the swollen creek to deliver presents?
Bring the whole family out for this Christmas tale of fun and adventure. The show will close out its run with a performance on Saturday, December 17th at 2pm. Verge Theater is reprising local playwright and funny man Ryan Cassavaugh’s hilarious holiday farce, Jimmy’s First Christmas on Parole! Jimmy has just been released from the State Prison after serving time for a “crime of passion.” All he wants is to pick up life where it was interrupted 18 months prior, but life on the outside hasn’t remained static. His brother Donnie lives in a state of confusion and paranoia brought on by recreational drug use; Marcie (the cougar next door) has waged war on discretion; his sister-in-law Jackie is in need of a life; his other brother Eddie has finally made a life; his estranged wife Debbie is acting strangely; his mother wants to wake up from this awful dream that is her family; and his parole officer just wants to know where the hell Jimmy is! If you think Christmas with your family is tough, come and get a dose of hilarious hi-jinx as Jimmy attempts to unravel his family and place them back into the neat packages he desires after months in the slammer.
Then again, perhaps life behind bars with strangers was better than a holiday with his family! Don’t miss this funny holiday adventure set to run one final weekend, Thursday–Saturday, December 15th–17th at 8pm each evening. Recover from your weekend with Improv Comedy! Join in as the Verge players offer up a Monday Night sacrifice of the most daring, death defying type of live theater there is: Improv! They call it Improv on the Verge! Improv Monday Nights feature The Bozeman Improverts who will beguile you with their laser-like wits, sharp tongues, and obnoxiously large heads. These masterful, main stage players improvise sketches built around audience suggestions, play improv games similar to those you see on Who’s Line Is It Anyway?, and perform long form improv that is basically making up short plays on the spot. You have to experience this to believe it! It’s a mere $7 to get in and laugh like hell at their team of S.W.A.T. trained Improv Players. (S.W.A.T. = SouthWest Alternative Theater).
The next Monday night show is set for December 19th beginning at 7pm. Save the date! Tales from The Verge: Resolutions is set for Thursday–Saturday, January 12th–14th at 8pm each evening. Resolutions will feature a collection of Bozeman actors, playwrights, comedians, and authors, recounting true stories from their lives in front of an audience. Touching, funny, embarrassing, exciting, thought-provoking, and entirely true. Host Ryan Cassavaugh will explore the evening’s theme of “Resolutions” in a series of short stories they never intended to tell in public. For more information about any Verge shows and to purchase tickets, please visit www.vergetheater.com/. Reservations can be made online or in person at Cactus Records in Downtown Bozeman. Verge Theater is located at 2304 N. 7th Ave., across from Murdoch’s, at the extremely hilarious North end of Bozeman. •
