Drama Island
Drama Island is Playhouse Merced’s very own game show!
It’s a mixture of Survivor, America’s got Talent, and Big Brother – but with twists along the way. Playhouse Merced twists. This season, the thirteenth, starts Sunday, March 11, and runs for 6 weeks ending on April 15.
Eight teams of two will compete. Each team has a love interest, like husband and wife, brother and sister, mother and daughter, bffs, or who knows what else. The shows are on Sunday nights at 7 p.m., and last 2 hours or so. Each episode will pit the teams against each other in challenges that they know nothing about until the day of the event. Teams will need physical energy, emotional energy, wit and a great strategy to have a chance to stay in the game. There are most likely 4 challenges each week.
A typical challenge may be something like a sales pitch for something weird – say like a device that claims to keep your car clean without ever needing to actually wash it. (I just made that up, so contestants: forget I said it.) After teams have finished their bits, one will be selected as the winner of that challenge. At first, the challenges are simple and straight-forward but will increase in complexity as the season continues. At the end of each night, at least one team will be eliminated from continuing. The eliminated teams will be placed on the jury, like Big Brother, and will eventually pick the final winner.
When Drama Island fist started, the teams were mostly Playhouse Merced “regulars” but now, there’s a mix of folks from all over the community. You have to apply to compete and then wait until a special committee reviews all applications and tries to balance the season with a good mixture of talent, age, ethnicity, experience and other factors. This year, approximately 20 percent of those who applied made the cut.
It may be a bit different next year, Playhouse Merced’s 25th anniversary. A reliable source told me it may just be a Drama Island All Stars game to celebrate.
The price to attend is certainly right! What a bargain! You can attend a single night for a mere $5 – or, if you want, buy a season pass for all 6 weeks for $20. The bad news is that it is so popular and is general admission, that you will need to arrive early or end up in the nose bleed section. But the concession stand is open so you can sip and munch while waiting for the show to begin.
Playhouse Merced takes their role as a “community” theater very seriously. Joe Hypes, the creator and inspiration for Drama Island, loves to get as many new people involved as possible. He says his favorite part of Drama Island is watching new people, who have never even been on a stage, grow with each week, and by the end of the season, are almost “professional” actors. He guessed that about twenty percent of Drama Island contestants follow on to audition for future Playhouse Merced productions.
Saint Patrick’s Day
Go through your closet, find something green and get ready to have a great evening. Start by joining a fundraiser for the Merced Art Hop, a pub and/or restaurant crawl. There are more than a dozen restaurants and pubs in downtown Merced that will be promoting specials, giving away door prizes and participating in a scavenger hunt. It starts at 5 PM and ends at 9 p.m. … but wait.
Start as early as possible and then head to the Merced Theatre to complete your Irish day to attend a Celtic concert at 7 p.m. Presented by Golden Bough, the music will be the perfect end to your St. Patrick’s Day.
Try not to get pinched.