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Invite you to enjoy some of the best local entertainment!
 
The "Pirates of Penzanze" was a hugely successful show this year and marks the
first performance of the newly formed Opera House Players theatre troupe. This
show was directed by David Wicks. Jr. of Dahlgren; produced by the wife; Aisha
Mitchell of Sesser with the orchestra directed by Sue Krapf of Benton. This trio
of VOLUNTEERS joined together professionally and put on a show that was a huge
hit. It will be hard to top this performance but plans are already underway to
do just that.
The cast came from all over Southern Illinois. There were
performers from Carbondale, Benton, Odin, West Frankfort, Sesser and parts in
between. The orchestra was made up of local musicians. They did an outstanding
job of providing the music for the show. I am always delighted to hear Karen and
Bill King play as they are truly professional musicians and just really great
people to boot. Throw in Tom Herman of Benton, Cam Brown of West Frankfort and
Marcus Lappin of Sesser and we just had a really great sound emanating from the
old orchestra pit. There were other musicians in the pit that I do not
personally know and they all joined together to make their part of the show
superb.
One of the things that impressed and probably depressed me at the
same time was the dedication to the cause that the performers had for the most
part. Here were a diverse group of people being led by Dave Wicks who for the
most part had to drive quite a distance to get to Sesser just to rehearse. That
is no small matter any more with the price of gasoline. A good lot of them spent
hours and hours not only getting their lines down, learning the singing parts
and such, but they also made the costumes and completely built the set that was
used on stage. Any one of these would have been difficult alone but we had
several who were in on all of the action and spent countless hours putting it
all together.
We had great crowds for all performances and once again
those in attendance were a diverse lot. One night we had an employee of the
famous Fox Theatre in St. Louis attend and was duly impressed with the Opera
House, the set, the music, and the performance. Another night we had two
television producers from Los Angeles and a professional actress from Key West,
Florida. Of course these folks did not make a special trip to Sesser but were in
the area visiting over the Memorial Day weekend and chose to grace us and see
the show. We were gratified by their kind comments and enjoyed visiting and
talking with them. All of the hard work came together and as folks left the
theater after each performance one could hear them talking amongst each other
about how they enjoyed the show and what a beautiful town Sesser was. We heard
how nice our Main Street looked and how friendly our people are. That made me
extremely proud of Sesser and all of a sudden the hard work that many people put
together came to a close. We hope that the good memories will linger on about
Sesser and that our little Opera House Company theatre troupe will have a very
long and successful run.
Perhaps the best compliment I received as Mayor
was one gentleman who toured the Opera House during the day on Saturday. He
explained to me that he last performed in a band on stage April 6th of 1940. He
was excited to see that we had restored the theater and were using it today. It
really made me feel good to have a former resident come back to Sesser and
relive that day in his life. It just makes me feel good to preserve a bit of
history and brought back good memories for this man. It makes me feel even
better to know that we have preserved the past in Sesser and we are right now
making memories for the future!Tickets for future shows?
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