Pegasus Theater Company
Posted December 7, 2005, 9:30 p.m.
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BUDA — What does a fellow do when he moves to Northern Hays County and finds out that what he's done all his life isn't happening?
He makes it happen. That's part of how a community grows.
And it's why an amateur theater company will debut Thursday night at the Burdine Johnson Theater with the Pegasus Theater Company's production of Catch Me if You Can. The show will play daily through Sunday.
Following 25 years of theatrical experience, mostly in the Orlando, FL, area, Edwin Reck moved to Kyle about 15 months ago so he could help his girlfriend care for her ailing father. All fine, except ...
"Moving to Kyle catapulted the idea of starting a theater group," Reck said, "because there's no theater. The high school does a production a couple times per year, but there's nothing semi-professional or professional."
Except for high school productions, the only regular theater in these parts has been Buda's Dessert Theater, which produces one show per year to benefit the Buda Public Library.
Reck hopes to do more frequent shows, all for charity, using local actors. Of the six actors in this weekend's production, five live in Hays County.
The play will run today through Saturday at 7:30 p.m., then Sunday at 2 p.m. Tickets, costing $7, are on sale at the Buda library, at the Motley Menagerie in Kyle and at the box office.
Reck said half the proceeds from this weekend's show will go to the Buda library and the rest will fund a scholarship for a Hays High School drama student.
Reck formed the theater company in September, assembled a cast and began rehearsals by the middle of October and already has the group ready for an audience. Reck said the group practiced three or four times per week for six weeks.
Catch Me if You Can, written by Robert Thomas, is a 1960s psychological thriller, "but it's hilarious," Reck said. "You'll be guessing all the way through."
The action begins when Corbin (played by Carl Galante of Wimberley) reports that his wife Elisabeth (Tiffany Hofeldt of Buda) is missing. Just when all hope is lost, a nun (Carel Thornton of Buda) brings Corbin's wife to him.
"But then," Reck said, "is she? It's one of those who's who and who did what to who. You have a lot of twists and turns. Is this man who he says he really is or is this woman who she says she is?"
John Daws of Wimberley plays the dim-witted but wise-cracking Inspector Levine, who tries to break the case. Wallace Middle School teacher Dana DeVos plays Sydney, a deli owner. Reck takes a cameo as Everett Parker, Jr., and Coral Waters of Austin plays Mrs. Parker.
The theatrical experience in this group ranges from Thornton, who has appeared in plays since the 1950s, to Hofeldt, who is making her theatrical debut as a leading lady.
"I met her at the Buda Fine Arts Festival (in October)," Reck said. "When I met her, I hoped that she was an actress. She doesn't have much experience, but she blew us away in the audition."
Topping Reck's theatrical work is several performances with the Melon Patch Theater in Leesburg, FL, including the company's recognition as Best Feature Actor for his portrayal of Bill Ray in On Golden Pond. Among Reck's other roles with Melon Patch Theater were the Duke in Man of La Mancha, Morris Townsend in The Heiress and Krojak in Don't Drink the Water.
Born in New York, Reck was raised in Puerto Rico before moving back to New York as a teenager. He moved to Florida at age 20, spending his next 20 years there before coming to Kyle.
