Park City Follies // 18 Years of Lampooning Laughs
Park City Follies, the unique play parodying 'all things Park City' is taking over the Egyptian stage for its 18th season on April 20 - 22 and 24 - 29.
Director, Paul Tan and head writer, Tom Clyde, are joined by a creative team including Rick Klein, Andy Cier, Josh Martin and Terry Moffit. According to Moffit, “We work as a committee. All of us make suggestions, edit, and dream up story lines but Tom does most of the heavy lifting when it comes to the stage play.”
Entitled 'The Housing Games', this year's play is about is about sky-rocketing home prices, families and middle class unable to buy in and the shift to part-time second homes.
The 50 member cast participates in a stand alone opening act. The play itself includes 6 videos and 10 musical numbers. Rehearsals begin right about now, in early April. “We have 8 nights,” explains Moffit, “just 8 nights for the cast to learn lines, songs, dance numbers, staging, etc. These are people with full time jobs who aren't professional actors. To me, that is the most amazing thing of all!”
The writers capture that nugget of truth of what's going on in town and help locals lighten up and laugh at themselves. Moffit remembers a night they parodied the Vail takeover. “Seeing the real Rob Katz (president of Vail) and all his staff in the Egyptian seats one night was a combination of thrilling and nerve wracking. They laughed and clapped and even took pictures with everyone afterward. Rob Katz told us, a show like ours, embraced by the community, couldn't happen in any other town in which they operate."
When deciding whether or not to tackle certain subjects, the team tries to take the high road. They don't go for the easy laugh or put down. Moffit points out, “A lot of very fine folks, well-respected in town, say yes to doing things with us every year. I am most proud of that because they trust us and know we will do everything in our power to do comedy in a positive way.”
Moffit would love the community to know what a labor of love this is for the entire crew. The creative team starts meeting in July, once a week to plan, write, shoot videos, organize, etc. “We all enjoy each other so it's fun but it is a ton of work. And the fact that our dedicated crew shows up for eight nights of long rehearsals, crams to learn their lines, then does their very, very best to entertain the people who show up. It is a full blown fundraiser for the Egyptian so the fact it sells out, gets a lot of laughs (so far), and makes money at the same time is very rewarding.”
Tickets are on sale at parkcityshows.com.