`corned Beef and Cabbage Comedy Skit

June 01, 2022 Post a Comment

BERLIN — Back in the 1990s, Jay Torrence and his brother, Nate, honed their slapstick comedy in and around the Holmes County surface area with a prove called "Corned Beefiness and Cabbage." Today, Jay is back with a new version of the quondam bear witness.

Jay went to Chicago, where he wrote and performed in an award-winning play "Burning Bluebeard."

He worked with The NeoFuturists Group in Chicago for 12 years, writing three full-length plays while pedagogy acting at the University of Chicago and other venues. He is currently teaching at Lake Forest College in Chicago.

Nate Torrence headed for Hollywood and has done a multifariousness of shows, including the HBO series "Hi Ladies."

After years on the road, Jay Torrence has brought his talents back to Holmes County, where he has opened a new nonprofit theater called Village Hall, featuring a six-week run of "Corned Beef and Cabbage: The Side by side Generation," which began Sept. 21 and will continue this month every Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 7 p.thou. in downtown Berlin. Tickets for full-time higher students are $12.50 Fridays and Saturdays and adult tickets are $25 (coupons are bachelor online for Friday and Saturday shows). Every Th, all tickets are $10.

"In 1997, I was just out of higher and my brother and I started making these shows, 'Corned Beefiness and Cabbage,'" Jay Torrence said. "They were fun comedy skits we were writing and directing and performing them for nigh four years.

"We built up a pretty big audience post-obit," he continued. "Information technology was really fun. Our church gave us rehearsal space in their youth room."

They rehearsed and held shows there when they were starting out, but eventually outgrew information technology and rented the auditorium at Hiland High School.

"Nosotros performed in a drama competition in Colorado at Estes Park in forepart of iv,000 people, and we won," Torrence said. "It was exciting. Plus, we were getting our writing and acting chops honed hither.

"Then I got hired to write and perform in Chicago, and Nate and his wife took the leap for Hollywood," he added.

While working professionally in Chicago and California, they would come back on occasion to Ohio and do a show, linking information technology to a fundraiser, similar earthquake relief for Nepal, or a prove for orphans in Africa.

"This yr, Carol Yoder suggested nosotros try and practise a run of the show here during the peak of tourism," Torrence said. "Ordinarily, we'd come in and do a ane-nighter, but we're experimenting to come across if the tourists and locals will support our show for half dozen weeks."

Torrence said Village Hall is a pocket-size, intimate theater, located in the Old Factory in Berlin (4857 East Main St) that seats between 75 and 100 people, as opposed to the Amish Theater that is doing shows at the old flea marketplace while they construct a new theater and hotel complex behind Tis the Flavor (beyond from Hiland High School on state Route 39) or the big, sparkling new Ohio Star Theater in Sugarcreek on the campus of the Carlisle Inn.

Torrence said that he hopes to tap into the tourist market, which has sold out all the local hotels through the autumn.

"When the stores close at 5 p.k., we're hoping to give people something to do during the evening. We're within walking distance of several hotels," Torrence said. "We're besides counting on word of rima oris, from friends and family who are familiar with what we're doing."

Torrence'due south prove "Called-for Bluebeard" has enjoyed a cursory run at the Amish Land Theater in the past.

"We're hoping to cross-support," Torrence said. "And we're talking to the folks at the Ohio Star Theater in hopes of anytime downward the route bringing a prove there.

"But for the type of show we're doing now, an intimate venue suits it all-time," he continued. "It's very loftier-paced, audience interactive, kind of like Saturday dark put in a blender with Charlie Brown and a garage ring. Information technology's similar a agglomeration of kids getting together and having fun, and inviting the audience to connect and accept fun with us. That's the main goal: a lot of smiles and laughter."

"Corned Beef and Cabbage: The Next Generation" is essentially 20 mini plays that count on audience interaction with the cast.

"Nosotros provide the audience with a carte du jour of all 20 play titles on it, and they become to order which play they see when," Torrence said. "We do the testify in random gild every dark. The audition picks the number, we pull the number downward, set the stage and we practise the play; it's brusk sketches like 'Saturday Night Live,' but with a chaos blend. It's fast-paced and we run the gamut of styles of comedy; slapstick, warm-hearted fun, and if you don't like a play, in ii minutes, it'll be over and maybe you'll similar the next one.

"It'due south pretty clean and information technology's fun. It'due south a loftier-energy sort of matter," he added. "We try to throw in a play hither and there that acknowledges and has fun with the uniqueness of our community."

The new cast members are John Hochstetler, Cameron Miller, Austin Yoder, Audrey Yoder, Bricklayer Yoder, Maynard Miller and Connor Mast.

Tickets are on sale at world wide web.cornbeefcomedy.com or at the Gospel Bookstore in downtown Berlin.

"Corn Beef and Cabbage will perform a mix of old favorite sketches combined with some fresh new ones too," said Ballad Yoder, public relations coordinator for Village Hall. "The show is hilarious, whip smart, and family friendly entertainment. It is singularly unique and delightfully off-beat."

Reporter Kevin Lynch can be reached at 330-674-5676 or klynch@the-daily-record.com.