Daddy’s Dyin’, Who’s Got The Will?

Buford Turnover is dying, and his four adult children have come to the family home to spend time with their father during his last few days. But what starts out with such a solemn premise turns into side-splitting comedy as these extreme personalities clash in Daddy’s Dyin’, Who’s Got the Will? at Amadeus Community Theatre.

Suffering from dementia due to a recent stroke, Buford remembers he has a will and recently changed it, but can’t remember where he put it. The children look for the will, all secretly hoping the others have been left out.  Lurlene, the eldest sister and minister’s wife, tries in vain to control the situation.  Sarah Lee, the spinster old maid sister, continually tries to make peace.  Orville, the overbearing loud mouthed brother, is desperate to find out how much money he’ll inherit while bullying his insecure wife, Marlene.  And Evalita, the rebellious daughter and aspiring singer, has brought her new hippie boyfriend Harmony along and spends most of her time at the local bar, much to the embarrassment of the rest of the family.  Tensions rise and the search for the will becomes more frantic, but will the Turnover children reconcile before their father dies?

"I first saw this play, with the original cast, at a theatre festival in Edinburgh, Scotland," says Jerry Henderson, director of the play for ACT.  "I thought it was one of the funniest and yet most touching theatre pieces I had ever seen.  Anyone from a small town will know these characters from real life.  They may even be related to some of them!"

Mr. Henderson is a new addition to the ACT group of community performers and directors.  A Tennessee native, Mr. Henderson is an actor, a playwright, and director.  During his 50 year career of theatre education, he has taught at David Lipscomb University, Tennessee Tech, and taught theatre for 26 years at Pepperdine University in California.