Author: Brian Lockhart
He's every girl's dream. He's handsome, he's rich, he's suave, and he's unconscious.
The Blackhorse Village Players production of I Take This Man is a screwball farce about a young woman's search for Mr. Right featuring a new cast all making their first appearance on the Blackhorse stage but arriving with some extensive credits behind them.
Written by Jack Sharkey and directed by veteran James McFarlane, the stage is set in Boston during the Patriot Day weekend amid the excitement of the Boston marathon.
When a man collapses from apparent fatigue during the race, a single girl enlists the aid of a police officer to bring him up to her apartment.
Justine McCloskey takes on the role of Gideon - an idealistic dreamer who thinks the unconscious man must be the one she has been waiting for all her life, even though she has never met him. He has all the qualities she has been looking for... except for actually being awake.
McCloskey has appeared in a variety of plays in the Dufferin-Peel region including a stint in Theatre Orangeville's production of Peter Pan.
As Police Officer Jud, Don Berns is a by-the-book cop who isn't entirely sure why they aren't taking the motionless man to a hospital rather than dumping him on a living room sofa. But Gideon convinces him, in a roundabout way, that the man is actually her husband.
Berns is a veteran performer having appeared in numerous stage productions in the United States and Canada as well as several television shows.
Joe Gallant also plays Officer Jud during this production and takes the stage on alternative evenings during the theatrical run.
Gallant is a graduate of the Humber College comedy program and appeared in many stage productions, television, and radio programs.
When Gideon's roommate Charlene comes home from her job as a hospital nurse, she is astounded to find a barely-clothed stranger on her sofa.
Although Gideon lets her in on the secret, Charlene isn't convinced this is the proper way to find a husband.
Alanna Carderelli has been involved in theatre since she was a child and becomes Charlene during this performance.
When Charlene's fiancé Dexter arrives for a planned intimate dinner, he confronts the two girls about this strange man in their apartment, but his questions only create more questions and very few answers.
Chad Kotnisz takes on the role of the perplexed boyfriend who isn't too happy to find out another man is apparently sharing the girls' apartment.
Kotnisz has been acting since age 14 and will be attending the theatre department at Ryerson in the fall.
So who is this sleeping man on the sofa?
He's not too sure himself. At least not a first.
"My name is Antonio?" he says when he becomes aware of his surroundings. As Antonio, Mike Eagles wakes up in a strange apartment surrounded by strange people under the watchful eye of a bevy of senior citizens with binoculars.
Eagles has appeared on the stage across Canada and the U.S. and has an Honours Degree in Theatre from the University of Guelph.
Bring on the martinis, the stage has been set for one crazy evening.
