The Tellico Community Players look to close out the 2021 theater season with some holiday cheer.
The Players’ rendition of “Undercover Christmas” is set for 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday and Dec. 9-11 and 1:30 p.m. Sunday and Dec. 12 at the Tellico Community Playhouse in Tellico Village.
“This play takes place in a rural free clinic and as one would expect there is a variety of people who come in seeking the help of Doctor Nash,” Sauni Rinehart, Players artistic director, said. “As also would be expected, it’s not doing well financially. It is a small rural (location) where people are paying for their services with jars of jelly. It’s the struggle of, ‘How are they going to survive? What’s going to happen?’ There’s a couple of surprises that happen — and I don’t want to give anything away, no spoiler alerts — but there’s some wonderful things that happen through how the staff of the clinic treats the patients and good things happen because it’s Christmas.”
Doc Nash has had a successful medical career, but five years after losing his wife he decided to return to his country home in Baynesville, Va. There he opened a medical clinic where residents receive free medical care.
“With only a Johnny-on-the-Spot nurse and a bumbling receptionist by his side, the clinic has become a vital part of this close-knit rural community,” according to a Players press release. “Since it opened, the clinic has been supported by funds from the local government and private donations. However, with recent cuts in funding and a dip in the economy, the clinic is struggling financially. With a stack of unpaid bills and no money in the bank, the future of this little clinic looks bleak.”
But God has other plans when a homeless patient changes the clinic forever.
“It is a very sweet Christmas play,” Rinehart said. “For us, the holiday season as actors, as people, we just love this season. To be able offer something to our audience that just reminds us of what the season is all about, that’s really what this play is, and it’s got a couple of surprises. It also has a wonderful cast of characters that are coming through the clinic, so there’s some funny moments and some sweet moments, but when audiences leave the show they’re going to feel very upbeat. They’re going to feel the reason for the season.”
This will mark the first time Courtney Woolard of Knoxville has directed for the Players.
“She has extensive theatrical experience in the greater Knoxville area,” Rinehart said. “I had an opportunity to work with her in a show that I did in the Knoxville area she was my director for, and she’s a solid, solid theater veteran both on and off the stage.”
The play includes a cast of 13.
Married couple Sue and Hugh Aukerman play nurse Frances and Doc Bev Nash, respectively.
“It’s a great story,” Sue said. “It is such a sweet Christmas story with a wonderful message. It has a great ensemble cast. We have a lot of people who have been very active in Tellico Players so there will be familiar people that people see on stage, but we also have a lot of new faces. It’s an opportunity for people new to the Village, new to Tellico Players to be part of us. As an active member in the theater, it just is so heartwarming to talk to so many people and hear them all be so effusively happy about Tellico Players and how warm and inviting and the truly community theater that it is. That’s been a lot of fun.”
Of the five years the couple has been involved with the Players, the past three years they’ve been on the stage.
However, this will mark their first time on the stage together, except a five-minute performance last Christmas. This will also be Hugh’s second leading role since taking up acting, with the first 2019 in “The Glitter Girls.”
“I think for the two of us, being here as husband and wife, it’s been a fun experience for us,” Hugh said. “It’s provided a lot of together time in preparation and on stage and it’s just been a fun experience. Not to say it’s been stressful now and then, but that’s just all part of life in general. For the two of us it’s been a really neat experience.”
“Undercover Christmas” will be the fourth and final main stage play performed by the Players in 2021. Rinehart said after the Dec. 11 performance, playwright Hope Bunch will be present to discuss the story.
“I hope that they walk away with feeling, especially with those who were able to see every show, that they were entertained thoroughly in 2021,” Rinehart said. “The hope is that they will look forward to being entertained thoroughly in 2022.”
Tickets are $21 and can be purchased at www.tellicocommunityplayhouse.org.
