The Front Porch Players’ actors and directors have been extremely busy, turning just seven weeks between the end of “Sound of Music” and the opening of their next show, “The Puzzle with the Piazza,” into enough time — enough to create a set, enough to explore the story and create characters, enough to get all the lines and blocking learned, and enough to prepare for a story which, through humor and not a little pathos, will bring audiences to understand that the human condition is not meant to be lived in isolation, but in community — whether that community is family or old friends or “kindred strangers,” as one character in the show comments. The show will run two weekends, April 28 – 30 and May 5 -7.
Althea Witlin, played by Diane Morris, is selling her house — her health has betrayed her, she says, and she must move in with a younger sister. Leif Morrell (Michael Alan), flush with news of possible future parenthood, comes to see the house and falls in love — with both the house and Althea. Soon Madelyn Pleshette, Maddie (Gavonta’ Zanders), the next door neighbor who we find out may be a savant, joins Althea and Leif — who have, through the chat of getting to know one another, discovered a mutual fondness for jigsaw puzzles and have decided to put together a massive one: the last one Althea will get to put together, since her sister hates puzzles. Maddie is not only a whiz at numbers but also, it seems, at puzzles. Leif’s wife, Connie (Sarah Evans), appears some time later with unfortunate news, but she, too, is swept up in the challenge of getting this puzzle together before tomorrow afternoon, when the movers (and Althea’s sister) will arrive to take her away. And finally, the sister, Ina (Cathy Cook) enters, seemingly bent on destroying any joy in the room, or the world for that matter — but you may see a…
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