“Spooky. Creepy. Hilarious.”
The short tagline on the poster for the upcoming “CAT-astrophe on Route 66” play at Sapulpa Community Theatre (124 S. Water Street) doesn’t say much, but the juxtaposition of the one-word descriptions hint at the chaos of the suspense-turned-comedy that opens this weekend.
Valerie Speaks, the writer of this show, gave some insight into how she and Debbie Pope, chairperson of the Play Selection Committee, came to take a story loosely inspired by another famous play from the 1920s and crafted this custom story exclusively for the Sapulpa Community Theatre.
“It started when Sapulpa did one of my published melodramas, ‘The Fate of Fairchild Farm,’ during the pandemic,” Speaks said. “After that, Pope contact me about writing a holiday play specifically for SCT.”
The result was “Miracle on Route 66,” which went extremely well, selling out every show.
For the new season, Pope again asked Speaks if she’d be up for writing another show just for the community theatre. Speaks decided to use the same play-within-a-play formula, with a few familiar tropes, like the onstage disasters that made “Miracle” such a hit.
“CAT-astrophe on Route 66” tells the tale of a group of actors in the 1920s performing a suspenseful show all up and down Route 66 called “The Cat,” which Speaks says is based on the actual 1920s thriller “The Cat and the Canary.”
“This creaky old script is one of the original sources of the familiar tropes (such as) the reading of the will at midnight, (or) hidden passages in a spooky old manor,” Speaks says. A look at the rehearsal photos show a similar storyline for the upcoming “CAT-astrophe” show.
The use of The Mother Road, Speaks says, was intentional. “My husband (also an actor) has performed many shows in a theater out here on the California end of Route 66, so it was sort of a fun connection,” she says. She also hopes it lends itself to a repeat of the sellout crowds that “Miracle” enjoyed. “I certainly hope so, especially as the 100th anniversary of Route 66 approaches,” she says.
Still, Speaks says that the show should be a solid mix of both suspense and comedy. “I hope I’ve built in enough places where suspenseful things happen with the set and lighting to give the audience a few old-fashioned spooky thrills,” she says, adding “but that really depends on the production design. I definitely hope they will find it all funny, and enjoy participating in the ‘improvised’ second act!”
The show opens on August 18th and runs for two weekends. Learn more about the show and get tickets at sapulpatheatre.org and keep up with the latest updates on Facebook at facebook.com/sapulpacommunitytheatre
