By Claudia Loucks
Geneseo Current
The Richmond Hill Players will open their 2025 season with “The Tell-Tale Farce,” a comedy by Don Zolidis.” The show will be presented Thursdays through Sundays, April 3-13, at the Barn Theatre, atop Richmond Hill in Geneseo.
Elizabeth Shaffer, Moline, directs the show.
The Geneseo Current received the following information in a press release:
“It’s 1848, and Edgar Allan Poe is just coming off the spectacular success of ‘The Raven.” Unfortunately, it’s only earned him a grand total of nine dollars. So, when a wealthy dowager commission him to write her a poem for the vast sum of one hundred dollars, he leaps at the chance. Only problem: the man who shows up to write the poem isn’t Poe, he’s Poe’s mailman, and he’s on a quest to woo the dowager’s spinster niece.”
“Playing Poe is harder than it looks, though, especially when your mustache keeps falling off, the teenage grand-daughter of the house is lusting after you, and Poe’s arch nemesis, Rufus Griswold, just happens to be dropping by to settle old scores. It’s freewheeling, closet-hiding, door-slamming farce, with a touch of the macabre!”
The cast of features Derek Bolme, Elizabeth Hulsbrink, Dana Skiles, all of Geneseo; Cali VanZandt, Atkinson; Eric Friedman, East Moline; David Shaffer, Moline; Shyan DeVoss, Rock Island; Eric Landuyt, Bettendorf; and Jacob Lund, Davenport.
The staff includes Pat Kelley, Kewanee, stage manager; Dana Skiles, light and sound designer; Suzanne Rakestraw, costumer, Mike Skiles, set builder, all of Geneseo; Lena DeLellis, Cambridge; light and sound operator; and Jim Skiles, Colona, set builder.
On Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, the doors open at 6:30 p.m. with the show beginning at 7:30 p.m. On Sundays, matinees begin at 3 with the doors opening at 2 p.m. Reservations are recommended and can be made by calling the Richmond Hill box office at 309-944-2244 or by visiting the website at rhplyers.com. Late seating is not permitted as no one will be admitted after the show starts. Admission to all performances is $12.
An audio description performance will be held Friday, April 4. Assisted Listening Devices (ALD’s) also are available when requested at the time reservations are made.
ABOUT RICHMOND HILL PLAYERS
Richmond Hill Players is a non-profit community theater group presenting plays in the converted top floor of an old dairy barn in Geneseo since 1968.
Approximately 100 active members are involved on and off-stage each year, with actors, directors, backstage personnel, support staffs, and audiences drawn from a 75-100- mile radius that includes cities in both Illinois and Iowa.