On Stage: ‘Vanities,’ A Three-Act Comedy With A Twist

Upcounty Theatre’s production of “Vanities” delves into the not-so-perky, post-pompon existence of three high school cheerleaders in the 1960s.

The local community theater troupe's production opens at BlackRock Center for the Arts on Friday and continues through Sunday, Aug. 19.

The Heifner play follows the lives of the small-town Texas girls, through the college sorority years and beyond. But director Matti Jane Dickenson deviates a bit from Heifner’s play, in which the BFFS reunite as grown ups, only to find they may have grown apart.

“What's so great about this show is that there's so much left to be interpreted,” Dickenson told Patch. “So we've been able to try a lot of new ideas to try to fill in the blanks that Heifner left for us.”

Dickenson, who managed this play while in college, attempts to get us there by injecting “secrets,” giving each girl a backstory to provide the characters more depth. In fact, Dickenson said the story line of act 3 is completely different.

As the sole sorority girl of the group, Dickenson said going to rehearsals was more like going to hang out with the girls.

“Just with scripted conversations,” Dickenson told Patch.

“I decided to create a fake sorority for us so the girls could get a sense of what being in a sorority really means,” Dickenson said in an email. “It's more than a friendship, more than throwing teas and dances, there's a bond built on ritual and ideals and secrecy. Some of us hold on to that bond for a lifetime ... some don't (just like in the play).”

If you go …

WHAT: "Vanities," presented by Upcounty Theatre
WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 17 and Saturday, Aug. 18; 2 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 19
WHERE: 
COST: General admission $15; $10 admission for seniors and students. For tickets, call BlackRock, 240-912-1058.
MORE: Subject matter not appropriate for young audiences. To learn more about Upcounty Theatre, visit UpcountyTheatre.org.