After driving in to the Ansonia on Friday, Miss Daisy kept the audience alternating between laughing and tearing up during the performance.
The Ansonia Theatre in Wadesboro opened the classic play “Driving Miss Daisy” to a full house.
The classic play, written by Alfred Uhry, follows the friendship of Daisy Werthan (played by Libby Dandridge) and Hoke Colburn (played by Leon Gatewood) as the unlikely friends develop a relationship that transcends social norms. It takes place in Atlanta from 1948 through 1973.
The show begins with Miss Daisy’s son Boolie Werthan (played by Mark Traywick) telling his mother that he is hiring her a chauffeur after she managed to wreck her car in a rather spectacular fashion.
Despite his mother’s protests, Boolie insists and interviews Hoke, an African-American man, for the job. “How does $20 a week sound?” he asks Hoke.
“It sounds like you got your mama a chauffeur!” Hoke replies enthusiastically.
Miss Daisy, an elderly Jewish and well-off widow, initially resists Hoke’s attempts to drive her. “I don’t need you and I don’t want you,” she tells him. Eventually, she relents, and the friendship begins. Over the next two and a half decades, the two learn that they aren’t so different after all, seeing the parallels between their stories due to the anti-Semitism and racism they face, and inextricably blending their lives in a way they never anticipated.
Before the play began on Saturday, director Tommy Wooten addressed the audience, hoping they could take away something from the message. “No matter how we come packaged, we are all the same,” he said.
The audience has responded favorably to “Miss Daisy,” some laughing and others openly crying as they left the theater.
This was Gatewood’s theatrical debut. Dandridge previously played Ouiser and Clairee in the Ansonia’s production of “Steel Magnolias,” and Traywick was the Cowardly Lion in the theatre’s production of “The Wizard of Oz” this spring.
While Friday’s Battle for the Border football game drew a crowd, it didn’t seem to impact the Ansonia’s opening night. Wooten reported that there were 616 attendees over the weekend, with the Friday night and Sunday afternoon performances packed and Saturday’s attendance only slightly lower at about 160.
People came to see the show from as far away as San Diego, where one former Anson resident read about the play and flew in to see it. Others came from Atlanta and all over North and South Carolina.
As of press time on Monday, seats were still available for this weekend’s performances. Show times will be on Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and on Sunday at 3 p.m.
To purchase tickets, call the Anson County Arts Council at 704-694-4950 or visit Lacy’s, Inc., on South Greene Street in Wadesboro. They can also be purchased using PayPal at www.ansoniatheatre.com. Tickets are $15. Reserved seating is available.
