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Get a ticket to non-stop laughter with "Boeing, Boeing" at the Players Guild

GET
A TICKET TO NON-STOP LAUGHTER WITH “BOEING, BOEING”


Get a ticket for a non-stop laughter-filled journey as the comedy “Boeing, Boeing” takes off Jan. 10 as the third show of the Players Guild of Dearborn’s 86th season.


The 1960s French farce, written by
Marc Camoletti, and translated by Beverley Cross and Francis Evans, is set in Paris, where Bernard has three stewardess-fiancées, each on a different airline.

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Gabriella
is on Alitalia, Gretchen is on Lufthansa and Gloria is on TWA. With the help of
his housekeeper, Bernard juggles all three until advances in airline technology speed up the flights and set his love life on a flight path for disaster.


His
friend Robert, visiting from the states, confuses things further when he cannot
keep the storylines straight.

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The show runs Jan. 10 to 12, 17 to
19 and 24 to 26, with show times at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 2:30 p.m.
Sunday.


The theater is at 21730 Madison in
Dearborn. For tickets or more information, call 313-561-TKTS or go to www.playersguildofdearborn.org.


Directed by Brian Townsend of
Dearborn, the cast features Alex Gojkov of Dearborn as Bernard, Nick Graham of
Van Buren Township as Robert and Margaret Kinnell of Dearborn as Berthe, the housekeeper.


Kori Bielaniec of Westland plays
Gloria of TWA, while Jennifer Beitzel of Northville plays Gretchen of Lufthansa
and Jillian Drapala of Dearborn Heights plays Gabriella of Alitalia.


Townsend said he wanted to direct
the show because it is a brilliant farce and even just reading the script is
funny.


“Lines are very witty,” Townsend
said. “They are very fast, and it was one of those shows that when you read it,
it was very easy to visualize the sort of chaos that has to happen on stage.”


He said he loves comedies,
especially “split second” ones like “Boeing, Boeing,” so he thought he would
give directing it a shot and see what happened.


 “We hope that the audience is left
gasping at the near-misses that happen over the course of the evening,”
Townsend said.


He added that he has been very
fortunate to have a cast that just “gets it” and makes the comedy work.


“It’s always a good sign at a
rehearsal when they are making each other laugh because they are just enjoying
it so much and enjoying each other’s performance,” Townsend said. “I come home
kind of hoarse from laughing myself. I am a laugher anyway, but they make it
worse!”


Graham, who plays Robert, Bernard’s
friend, said his is a very slapstick and physical role, with a lot of running.


“It is kind of ‘the perfect storm,’”
Graham said. “I am here on a rare day when (the fiancées) are all here at the
same time, and everything had been prepared that it would never happen that
way, but lo and behold, it has anyway – so antics ensue.”


Drapala, who plays Gabriella of
Alitalia, said her character is a very fiery Italian.


“She won’t take ‘no’ for an answer,
and she is a spitfire,” Drapala said. “I love her so much!”


She said she channels the energy from her everyday hectic life and uses it to achieve the spitfire persona.


“I am very outgoing, very
personable,” Drapala said. “I love to make people laugh, so I am glad that this
character lets me do that.”


She said it is a rare show to have
so much comedy in a short span of time.


"Every time a character turns their
back, or a door opens, a new plot twist comes in,” Drapala said. “You kind of
have to keep yourself on your toes.”


Beitzel, who plays Gretchen from
Lufthansa, said she is telling her friends and family that the show reminds her
of one big, “Three’s Company” episode.


“It’s so funny every second,”
Beitzel said. “I don’t know how we are going to get our lines in because we are
always laughing at each other, and the audience is going to laugh at us as we
are doing it, so I am just so excited about how high energy it is going to be
and how fun it is going to be.”

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