This is Pastor Tim’s article which appeared in the Evening Leader on Tuesday, Oct 1, 2024
About a year ago, there was a live production down at the Grand Opera House called The Ditchmen. It was a stage production based on the book published by our very own Joe Ginter. Some of you were already aware that The Ditchmen was a series of books Joe has published. We had a lot of fun bringing the first Ditchmen story to life.
Given the success of the first production, The Ditchmen 2 is in rehearsals and is slated to be live on the stage the weekend of October 19-20. The Ditchmen are back and causing mayhem in our local community. This time, there will be a few new monsters to add to the chaos. There is also a mysterious new business owner with a lot of curiosity about the Ditchmen who recently moved to town. To add to the fun, the local urban legend known as the Hoedag will also be causing havoc. If you have read the books, come see these characters and creatures brought to life. If you have not read the books, there is still plenty of craziness for you to enjoy.
Many of the colorful characters are back this time around to try to sort out what is happening with all of the creatures and government agents running around. The play is a zany comedy that was enjoyed by the packed house during the performances of the first play.
Unlike the last time, this time both presentations of the Ditchmen 2 will happen on the same weekend. There will be a Saturday night presentation on October 19 at 7:00PM and there we will also be a matinee on Sunday afternoon October 20 at 2:00. You can purchase tickets through the Grand Opera House website. Go to events and scroll down until you see the picture for the Ditchmen.
All of the people involved in this production from the actors on the stage to the behind-the-scenes workers are all volunteers. All proceeds from ticket sales go to benefit the theater renovation. The Ditchmen 2 is a good time for a good cause.
I have enjoyed working with both productions of the Ditchmen. We have been doing read throughs and rewrites of the script for about 2 months now. We have ironed out the script and have it in good working order. I will say that the lead up to this one has been much smoother since we have so many people returning to this production. There are far fewer things we had to figure out for the first time.
This extra time has allowed more emphasis to be placed on monster design, which is going to be much more this time. There will also be singing, some dancing, a lot of shouting and chasing, and some crazy costumes to go along with a few scientific experiments that go haywire. We have had a lot of fun putting this whole production together.
I would like to give Joe Ginter the credit he deserves because he is the driving force behind this project. The Ditchmen came from years of being a part of our community and working with the kids through the school. A lot of the gags from the play are things he actually did in the classroom, so a lot of his former students will recognize much of the events in the play, especially the classroom scenes. He has an incredible imagination, which you will get to witness by watching the play.
The play is family friendly. There are monsters in the play, but they are more like Scooby Doo monsters, they are not scary at all. They are all played for laughs, and plenty of laughs there will be.