The Vero Beach Theatre Guild closed out its month-long Tennessee Williams-focused 10 X Tenn Theatre Festival with a Booze and Blues Cabaret Gala. Throughout September, the festival featured all-things Williams, from the season opener “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” movies of his works and one-act plays, to Williams-themed events.
“I thought it was wonderful. Every event couldn’t have been any better than it was. All in all, I think that we came out a winner on it,” said Jon Putzke, VBTG artistic director.
He commented that attendance was consistently good, as were the reviews.
“One thing that I found very interesting was the Monday night movies. We had probably an average of 60 a night for that, and the weather on Monday nights was just horrible all month long. It was pouring rain every night. It was the same group of people who also were attending many of the other events, so they were really into the idea of the festival.”
Hurricane Ian did interfere with the staged reading by the Melbourne Civic Theatre of “Summer and Smoke.” It was scheduled to take place the Wednesday evening that Ian made its unwanted appearance, so Putzke said they are in the process of rescheduling it.
Another glitch postponed the final performance of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.”
“The light board went out on us. It wasn’t caused from the storm because it was unplugged during the storm. So we still don’t know what happened,” said Putzke.
Cast members, who were already costumed and made up, came out to mingle with patrons while they waited to see if it could be fixed. When it couldn’t, ticketholders were given options to attend the rescheduled performance, exchange them or receive a refund.
“We were out here having a good time. And so really the whole evening suddenly turned into a party out here and was kind of fun,” said Putzke.
Entertainment during the festival’s closing act featured the smooth sounds of the Crescent City Crawdads Jazz Trio, led by Jacob Craig on keyboard, and vocals by VBTG stage veterans Beth McKenzie-Shestak and Gregory and Caitlan Harris.
Tim Shestak, a certified sommelier and self-described “cocktail enthusiast of anything fermented or distilled,” curated a bourbon tasting with flights of High West Bourbon, Russell’s 10 Year Reserve and Knob Creek Rye.
For information about the VBTG Season offerings, call 772-562-8300 or visit VeroBeachTheatreGuild.com.
Photos by Joshua Kodis
