Women to steal the show at Footlight

'When I got married, I had seven bridesmaids, and my corkage fee was doubled, not because of the wedding guests, but because my bridesmaids drank so much!" recalls Andrea K. McGinn.

The actress can readily identify with Alan Ball's play, "5 Women Wearing the Same Dress," which opens Friday at the Footlight Players.

McGinn portrays one of five bridesmaids in the comedy, which in 1993 featured Charlestonian and former Footlight Player actor Thomas Gibson at the Manhattan Class Company in New York. Gibson, who went on to star in films and the long-running "Dharma and Greg" series, is now in the detective series "Criminal Minds."

Ball's "5 Women" was one of his early efforts. He created and produced HBO's "Six Feet Under" and won an Academy Award for Best Screenplay for "American Beauty."

The play will be directed by Kay Shroka, who has been an active thespian for 56 years. To illustrate Shroka's extensive history with the Footlight Players, there is a 1960 photo published in 2001 in The Post and Courier that shows Shroka with legendary director and actor Emmett Robinson in the play "The Hidden River."

Shroka says she liked the script of "5 Women" and that there are so many substantive parts for women.

"Also, it's intriguing to see a show centering upon a wedding but in which the bride and groom never appear," she says.

Following the wedding ceremony, as the bridesmaids gather in the bride's sister's bedroom upstairs in a renovated old-money mansion in Knoxville, Tenn., the women have a witty, revealing and poignant conversation.

"It's rated for adults just because of some language," says Shroka. "But I did change a word or two."

She selected Jennifer Metts for a key role in the ensemble work.

"The character of Trisha is the axis around which the other women revolve, as they tell the never-married Trisha about their various marital problems," explains Metts in a phone interview.

"Trisha, 34, enjoys her single life. Being married doesn't appeal to her because she has seen so many of her married friends who are extremely unhappy."

She adds, "Just like anytime that women who have known each other on different levels through the years get together, issues are dredged up from the past. But also during the wedding, Trisha does have her eye on an usher who eventually comes looking for her."

Portraying Mindy, the cheerful, wisecracking lesbian sister of the groom, is Adrianne Dukes, who was in "Picnic" at the Village Playhouse. She says her character "is a little neurotic until she's got a plateful of food in front of her, but she is never afraid to say exactly what she is thinking!" says Dukes.

She says she is thrilled to be in such a "meaty role" because she is expecting her first child and anticipates she won't be doing much theater for a while.

But how does it feel to be the lone man in a play with five actresses and a woman director?

As Tripp, an usher and cousin of the groom, Tony Nappo says, "It's an intensely wonderful experience, especially as I listen to how these women talk. I grow to really admire them for what (their characters) are going through," says Nappo, a College of Charleston theater graduate who was last in the Footlight Players' "The Sound of Music."

He describes Tripp as "kind of a bad-boy type, who is 29 and single."

McGinn notes that her character, Georgeanne, is "fat, neurotic and married to a husband she describes as 'a piece of wet toast.' "

"Georgeanne is hoping to divorce her husband and marry the ex-fiance of the bride," she explains.

Other bridesmaids include Frances (Darielle Deigan), a painfully sweet but sheltered religious fundamentalist. Also, the role of Meredith, the bride's younger sister who has a dark secret that she finally reveals to the other women, will be taken by Carole Moore.

With a $250 budget, finding five identical dresses proved to be quite a problem for Shroka, who had two costume designers give up on the project.

"Someone suggested that maybe all the dresses didn't have to look the same," says Shroka. "I answered, 'Well, that could be done if you change the title of the play!' "

However, Footlight Players' artistic director Robert Ivey came to the rescue.

"Bob became our costume designer and found five identical dresses," says Shroka.

Still, McGinn has her doubts. "In my dress, I look exactly like a huge silver disco ball," she says with a rollicking laugh. "I'm going right out to look for a girdle."

The play will be performed at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, continuing March 18-20, 25-27, and 3 p.m. March 21 and 28 at 20 Queen St. Tickets are $15-$25 and may be purchased by calling 722-4487 or online at www.etix.com.

Dottie Ashley is a freelance writer in Mount Pleasant. Reach her at dottieashley@gmail.com.