Connellsville Area seniors bring gold to stage with ‘The Beverly Hillbillies’
Rachel Basinger
Starring in Connellsville Area High School’s production of “The Beverly Hillbillies” are (from left): Anthony Pouliot as Jethro Bodine, Jed Fullem as Jed Clampett and Maddison Cree as Elly May Clampett.
Rehearsing a scene from "The Beverly Hillbillies" are Connellsville Area High School students (from left): Grey Burnsworth as Percy Pennyweather, Madison Berger as Mrs. Pennyweather and Anthony Pouliot as Jethro Bodine.
Director Dave Hartz (far left) talks to the cast of "The Beverly Hillbillies."
Connellsville Area High School students in a scene from "The Beverly Hillbillies" are (from left): Mary Ellen Mountain as Granny, Valerie Bowman as Mrs. Drysdale, Parker Carte as Mr. Drysdale and Jed Fullem as Jed Clampett.
Connellsville Area High School seniors will bring some classic humor to the stage with their senior class play production of “The Beverly Hillbillies” at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 15-17.
The play is a comedy adapted by David Rogers from the television series that was created by Paul Henning and published by Dramatic Publishing, Inc.
David Hartz has been directing the senior class play for the last 15 years and works hard each year to pick the show he feels is the best fit.
“I generally start by looking through the catalogs or websites of drama publishers to try and find a show that meets certain criteria, such as a larger cast of more than 20, a comedy that would be appropriate for all ages, and something that may be familiar to audiences,” he said.
“‘The Beverly Hillbillies,’ I think, meets all of those standards,” Hartz added, saying the students went straight to YouTube to check out clips of the 1960s TV show and are now quite familiar with the characters they’re playing.
The three-act play is based on the pilot episode of the television show that first aired in 1962.
The series is about Jed Clampett, a poor, widowed mountain man who owns property with an oil-rich swamp and lives on it with his daughter and mother-in-law.
When an oil company discovers the oil, it pays him $25 million for the right to drill on his land. Jed’s cousin Pearl Bodine prods him to move to California and pressures him into taking her son Jethro along.
The family moves into a mansion in wealthy Beverly Hills right next door to Jed’s banker, Milburn Drysdale. The Clampetts bring a moral, unsophisticated, and minimalistic lifestyle to the swanky, sometimes self-obsessed and superficial community.
This year the cast, including extras, is made up of about 25 individuals.
The leads include Jed Fullem as Jed Clampett, Maddison Cree as Elly May Clampett, Anthony Pouliot as Jethro Bodine, Mary Ellen Mountain as Granny, Parker Carte as Mr. Drysdale, Valerie Bowman as Mrs. Drysdale, Madison Berger as Mrs. Pennyweather and Grey Burnsworth as Percy Pennyweather.
“The script is hilarious and the students are really enjoying it, especially those who get to show off their ‘hillbilly’ accents,” he said. “It is just a lot of fun, even for me.”
Fullem has been in several musicals throughout his years at Connellsville Area High School and is excited to be a part of the senior class play.
“I love the feeling of the crowd applauding, the feeling of the lights on you while you’re on stage and the pressure you get from being on stage,” he said.
Being part of a play is a bit different from being part of the bigger musicals.
“I like that it’s not as structured and strict with how you have to do everything,” Fullem said. “You get to come up with what you want to do and see how it works. There’s just a lot more creative freedom.”
Carte likes the focus on literature and words in plays.
“It’s purely articulation and the way you orate your words,” he said. “It’s a challenge but it’s also simply classic.”
Carte admitted that he hadn’t seen any of the classic shows before the play was picked.
“The classic humor is just so funny and the jokes are in context and not just out there,” he said.
Cree said memorizing all the lines has been a bit challenging, but so far she is having playing a character that is completely opposite of her personality.
“Elly May is a tomboy and she beats up on people — playing the role was a challenge at first, but Mr. Hartz has really helped me bring it all together,” she said.
She added that she’s looking forward to having an audience.
“There’s a lot of good humor and I know everyone will laugh a lot,” Cree said.
Tickets are $5 and can be purchased at the door on the evening of the performance. Advance tickets may be purchased by calling the high school at 724-628-1350, or by emailing dhartz@casdfalcons.org.
“Success, to me, in theater at this level, is arriving at opening night with the feeling of, ‘we got this,'” Hartz said. “Unlike the spring musical, our show has no budget to speak of, and, frankly, we don’t get much support outside of my little cast and crew, so my idea of success is knowing that the kids had fun, learned a little, and gave the audience their money’s worth on that stage.”