A North Carolina playwright, a classic sitcom star, local businesses and actors from the entire region are combining forces to raise funds for Roanoke Rapids this holiday season in a very innovative way.
Joyce DeWitt, who has been known for generations as Janet Wood on TV’s Three’s Company, will play a Waffle House waitress in the Christmas musical comedy, A Scattered, Smothered & Covered Christmas, for four performances at the newly opened Royal Palace Theatre on I-95 in Roanoke Rapids.
Many local celebrities will join her on stage as well including Tia Bedwell, Brady Martin, Will Cox, Linda Casper-Clarke, Melvin Poythress, Jonathan O’Geary, Andy Dickerson and a children’s chorus made up of six surrounding counties.
In addition to a portion of every ticket going to help the City of Roanoke Rapids reduce the debt they still have on the $20 million theatre it built in 2006, proceeds from the production are benefitting the Roanoke Avenue Business Alliance, a nonprofit dedicated to revitalizing Roanoke Avenue business district.
“This is one of the best examples that I have seen of a community coming together for the city they love,” said state representative Michael Wray, who represents the city in the N.C House. “A play about a Waffle House with Janet in it? What’s not to love about that?”
The play, written in 2004 by Henderson native and theatre manager Kaine Riggan, takes place in a Tennessee Waffle House on Christmas Eve as people of all different walks of life are getting snowed in for the night. DeWitt plays a waitress named Rita who is actually dead and somewhere between this life and the next, charged with the task of handing out good deed assignments to people who have to perform more good deeds before they can move on.
“Being open 24 hours makes the restaurant chain the ideal place for Rita’s ‘regulars’ to obtain their next good deed assignment” said DeWitt, who also played the role in Riggan’s musical in Nashville in 2008. “The story is both heartwarming and hilarious and this cast is so talented. Who knew this gem of a theatre was hiding here somewhere between Florida and New York?”
“Rita, herself, is given her final assignment this Christmas Eve night as well,” Riggan said. “She has to bring together her widower husband and a single mom who is also in the restaurant that night, and she is not particularly pleased about it.”
Music for the show was written by Randy Travis, T. Graham Brown and other Nashville songwriters including North Carolina composer Jennifer Prince, who penned a memorable black gospel number for the show called Packed Up, Prayed Up and Ready To Go.
DeWitt is one of three professional actors who came to town to join the local talent pool for the show, which started rehearsals on November 19. The neighboring Hilton Garden Inn donated the lodging for these actors for the entire run of the play.
Performances are Tuesday, December 11 at 7 p.m., Thursday, December 13 and Friday, December 14 at 7:30 p.m. with a special matinee on Thursday, December 13 at 3 p.m., which is half price for seniors. Regular price for tickets is $25 and may be purchased 24 hours a day at the theatre, by phone at 252-536-5577 or online at www.RoyalPalaceTheatre.com .
Teachers and their families pay only $7 for Tuesday night, which has been underwritten by the State Employee’s Credit Union as a Teacher Appreciation Performance.
DeWitt will be available after each performance in the lobby signing autographs and greeting ticketed guests.
