Church finds mission in ‘The Mild, Mild West’

Dean Poling
The Valdosta Daily Times

VALDOSTA, Ga. June 06, 2007 10:54 am

— Park Avenue United Methodist Church is taking an audience to “The Mild, Mild West” later this month so church members may make a mission trip to Belize.
Money raised from this show will go toward funding the Park Avenue United Methodist Church Mission Team’s fourth trip to Hattieville, Belize. The team is scheduled to make the journey from July 12-18, says Jamie Bone, a Park Avenue Mission Team member and director of “The Mild, Mild West.”
While the Mission Team takes its missions seriously, it plans to present a fun and silly play for audiences.
“The Mild, Mild West” is a mystery dinner theatre. The show’s premise, according to Bone, “Sweet Sue Sobright (played by Heather Dorsey) and Tex Toogood (Daryl Rayburn) try to prevent the evil villain Snively Snidely (Kyle Peterson) from taking over the Bar-B-Q Dude Ranch. A mysterious Easterner shows up with the solution — namely stolen jewels and cash. You can bet there will be some kind of crime committed — probably murder — before all is said and done.”
The play’s action will take place among the audience tables in the church’s Fellowship Hall, and audience members can try guessing “whodunit” along with the show’s sleuth Detective Galloping Gloria, played by Gloria Hoskins. Clues to the mystery will be on each table.
The majority of the Mission Team cast has previous performing experience in Park Avenue United Methodist Church’s annual Easter performance of “The Promise,” but “The Mild, Mild West” marks the first performance for a few cast members and the first comedy for most of them.
The play was written especially for Methodist church groups.
In addition to the show, the audience will be served a meal of barbecue chicken from Bone Pile Bar-B-Q, baked beans with sausage, potato salad, Texas toast, homemade peach cobbler and ice cream.

Dean Poling writes for the Valdosta (Ga.) Daily Times.

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