Ike Players: If the Good Lord’s Willing and the Creek Don’t Rise

The Ike Players, our drama club here at Eisenhower, is working on a play called If the Good Lord’s Willing and the Creek Don’t Rise that they are going to put on for the community in early November. This zany comedy is centered around a retired old judge named Doc who spends his time in his hot air balloon, fishing in dry riverbeds, or working on his books of nonsense. Doc’s daughter, Charlotte, is convinced he has lost his mind, and she wants to become his legal guardian and even sell his land and property. This play also introduces many other characters, such as some love-sick teenagers stuck talking in Shakespeare, a crazy school bus driver, an occasional artist or two, and other characters that add to the story and the essence of the play.

     Dante Douthit-Mitchell, who plays Doc, speaks on how he wants the audience to view this play. I asked him, “How do you want the audience to feel about this play?” His response was,  “I just hope they have a fun time; I hope they think it’s funny, 'cause I mean, we’re putting in the effort, you know?” Just like many others have said as well, they hope the audience enjoys it and finds it funny because they want to make the audience laugh and have a fun time watching it

     Stephen Clark, the drama director here at Eisenhower is the one who leads these talented students and puts them up on the stage. Clark has a lot of choices and decisions to make when choosing a play, so I asked him why he chose this play. He says “When Selecting a play or musical, I weigh the stories we want to tell and the skills we want to teach and exercise. I chose this play because it gives our students modern characters and work on their comedic skills. Performing comedy is completely different than drama and requires attention to timing and movement that help land the jokes and move the plot. This play is great fun because the characters and story are similar to what can be seen in a TV sitcom”

     These students have been putting great effort into this play and are very excited to show it off to the community! The shows will be on November 7th, 8th, and 9th @7pm and a matinee @2 on the 9th. We all hope to see you there!