Bordentown Community Players present 1996 comedy for spring production
By: Vanessa S. Holt
MOUNT HOLLY The stage is somber and dark: the inside of a medieval French abbey set with Gothic arches and stonework. A human skeleton is laid out to rest in this sepulchral scene, as robed monks drift by bearing large wooden crosses on their chests. And the play is wait, it’s a comedy?
"Incorruptible," which will be presented by the Bordentown Community Players in late April and early May, is just that, billed as "a dark comedy about the Dark Ages." The 1996 comedy by Michael Hollinger takes place in an abbey where the monks are down on their luck, money is running out and their patron saint hasn’t given them a miracle in years.
A minstrel (played by Frank Nusbickel of Palmyra) comes along to give them a money-making scheme. Without giving too much away, let’s say that it has something to do with bones.
The basic plot, involving religious relics and rival monasteries, is based on a true story, said director Ellen Voorhees, though the humor is the author’s invention, of course.
Ms. Voorhees, a Forked River resident, joined the Players in 1991 as part of the cast of "Steel Magnolias" though she had not been involved in stage acting before just singing with the church choir.
"I guess it was innate, the more I did, the more I enjoyed it and the easier it was to become that character that I was portraying," she said. "The hardest thing is learning the lines."
The group previously held its performances at the Crosswicks Community Center but this will be its third show at Rancocas Valley Regional High School in Mount Holly.
The Bordentown Community Players group has existed in one form or another since before World War II the current group is actually the New Bordentown Community Players, but the "New" is usually dropped these days. It’s made up of about 15 regulars, plus the people who help out at performances, ranging in age from 20s to 70s, mostly from the Bordentown area.
With a spring and a fall play every year, the group holds rehearsals on Tuesdays, Wednesday and Fridays for several months before performances and holds performances over several weekends.
The nonprofit organization finances its productions through ticket sales and provides two annual scholarships. One, a public service scholarship for a Bordentown student, memorializes the late Bee Busch, a former troupe member. Another, in memory of Orville Goode, is for a Rancocas Valley theater student.
Tuesday night actors were trying on their costumes and getting ready for the last week of rehearsals as they counted down to opening night.
Kathy Shumway-Tunney, a Chesterfield resident, said reminiscing over old scrapbooks inspired her to audition for the players after about 20 years away from the stage.
She plays the unnamed Peasant Woman in "Incorruptible," a character who interjects a little of the world outside the monastery walls into the monk’s world and who refuses to pay to pray before their relic at the beginning of the play.
"Not having done (theater) for 20 years I am finding it’s a lot more demanding," she said. "But I’m enjoying being in a troupe again and working with a group of people. It’s very stimulating to work on a project together and see it come to fruition."
Victor Ramos of Mansfield plays Brother Martin, the second-in-charge of the abbey in the dark comedy, which is the seventh production he has acted in. Brother Martin’s main concerns in the beginning of the play are more material than spiritual, worrying about how to keep the cash-strapped residents of the monastery from starving.
As for the community theater experience, he said, there’s nothing like it. "It’s a great way to give back to the community," he said. "It’s good to give people a break from their high-tech, fast-paced lifestyle. This is low-tech. It’s one of the last bastions of human interaction, and it’s good for the soul."
The attraction of theater for many of these actors is not just the therapeutic value of getting up on stage and adapting a new persona, but the interaction between actors and audience.
For some actors, being part of the productions has been life-changing in other ways. Scott Scudder, the Abbot in the play, an Eastampton resident (formerly from Chesterfield), joined the group in 1999 and met his wife, Jenny, in his second show. They played a pair of lovers in "Heaven Can Wait."
A chiropractor by day, Mr. Scudder said he sometimes refers to himself as an "actorpractor," having originally gone to college for drama.
Meanwhile, Mr. Nusbickel, wearing an eyepatch and tossing a few juggling balls in the air, plays the protagonist in the play, the troublemaking minstrel with the moneymaking scheme. Stephanie Lynn (Ms. Shumway-Tunney’s daughter), a New Egypt resident, plays the minstrel’s wife "of sorts," she said.
Ruth McGuire, a Bordentown City resident, joined the group after she saw a production at the Crosswicks Community Center, even though she had never been on stage before.
"I specialized in small but pivotal roles," she laughed. In this production she is a self-described terror, the Abbess Agatha.
"She’s very loud, strident …she’s got their number," said Ms. McGuire. The role is a welcome change from her daily routine, she said. "My day job is at a university library I pay bills all day long. This … is not sitting behind a computer."
"Incorruptible" will be presented by the Bordentown Community Players on April 21, 22, 28, 29, and May 5, 6, and 7 at Rancocas Valley Regional High School, Jacksonville Road, Mount Holly. Evening shows are at 8 p.m. and matinees, on Sundays, will begin at 2 p.m. For more information or ticket sales, contact (609) 971-6343.

