A Year in Review

As the year comes to a close, it's time to take a look back at what happened in 2017 with the Bobcat Players! And what better way to do that than by asking you what you loved the most? At the beginning of the month, we sent out a survey to our e-mail subscribers and also posted it on our Facebook. We are thrilled to reveal the highlights of our season, as told by you! Thank you to all who participated in the survey, and especially those who attended all four shows.

Our first question was: what was your favorite play this season? We asked everyone to keep in mind that this question only pertained to the content of the play and the writing. We know it was hard for you to pick just one favorite, but you did it! Our winner was Meredith Dayna Levy's Decision Height. This play was quite different from what we've done in the past, and we are ecstatic that you loved it as much as we did.

Secondly, we asked you to pick your favorite set of 2017. There were two clear favorites--Barbara Pease Weber's Foolish Fishgirls and the Pearl and Patti Ross's A Very Oblonski Valentine--but ultimately, you decided that your favorite was:

The Oblonski's Tool, Dye, Hardware and Feed Store! The set for A Very Oblonski Valentine was incredibly detailed and clearly a labor of love. Special thanks to all those behind-the-scenes folks who made this happen--particularly all involved in the construction and design!

We were very fortunate to have many special events this year! From taking our first outreach production to the mainstage with What I Did For Love, to Barbara Pease Weber's attendance at her play, Foolish Fishgirls and the Pearl, to the world premiere of A Very Oblonski Valentine, we definitely kept our audiences on our toes with what to expect! But despite all of these fabulous occurrences, none was more memorable for you than the appearance of local WASP, Florence "Shutsy" Reynolds, at Decision Height. We were so honored that she was able to attend! Decision Height also scored the highest votes for the show with the best music and your favorite poster. You might remember that all of the music in Decision Height was authentic--Shutsy was even singing along when she attended! We were fortunate to have a musical director, Brenda Menjivar, in place for that show, as well. The poster was designed by the show's dramaturg, Tom Dowlin.

We were excited to have a lot of new actors onstage this year, so when it came to asking you to name your favorite newcomer, we knew it was going to be a challenge for you. We narrowed it down to one leading actor per show, which left you deciding between Elisha Carleton as Lucien P. Smith in Tom Griffin's The Boys Next Door, Kathleen Regan as Coral in Foolish Fishgirls and the Pearl, Stephanie Spezialetti as Norma Jean Harris in Decision Height, and Maura Underwood as Sadie Guildenstern in A Very Oblonski Valetine. With her strong accent and huge stage presence, we were excited that you voted Maura Underwood as the winner! (Of course, we love all of our actors--and we hope to see them all back at auditions in January!)

We set the tone of the season with What I Did For Love, so it shouldn't come as a surprise that, throughout 2017, love was most definitely onstage with the Bobcats! We wanted to know who your favorite couple was, so we asked you to pick between Norman & Sheila in The Boys Next Door, Nathan & Pearl in Foolish Fishgirls and the Pearl, Coral & Floyd in Foolish Fishgirls and the Pearl, and Butch Oblonski & Lily Gradisak in A Very Oblonski Valentine. And the winner is...

Norman and Sheila! And really, how could you resist a love like that?

And when it came to the rest of the characters we asked you about, it was clear that all of your favorites were from A Very Oblonski Valentine! You voted Josiah Putnam as your favorite authoritative figure, Julian & Adrian Gregory as your favorite siblings, and Consuela Blanco de la Neuve as the biggest diva of 2017!

Last, but not least, we asked you what your favorite production of the season was. We asked you to bear in mind all aspects of the shows, including acting, costumes, lights, music, set, etc. and so we couldn't be more proud to announce that the results were a tie...

...between Foolish Fishgirls and the Pearl and Decision Height! Both shows were very different, but we're so happy that you loved them both so much.

And that wraps up 2017! Again, we are incredibly thankful for all of those who participated in making this year such a huge success. We are looking forward to 2018 and we'll see you all in the new year! Happy holidays from all of us at the Bobcat Players! (P.S.-Don't forget to schedule your audition for January!)