Old Depot PAC Opens with Tale of Friendship

Old Depot PAC’s first audience awaits Rogue Theater’s production of ‘Coupla White Chicks.’ Photo by Sally Slattery.

Old Depot Performing Arts Center in Sturgeon Bay opened Friday night with a touching comedy, Coupla White Chicks Sitting Around Talking, featuring two opposites: Maude Minks, an uptight suburban housewife, played by Lola DeVillers, and Hannah Mae Bindler, a boisterous Texan looking for friendship, played by Katie Lott Schnorr.

While audience members sipped on complimentary wine, co-founder of Rogue Theater Stuart Champeau took time to thank the space’s first audience, the sponsors, and all involved in making the Old Depot PAC a reality – particularly his wife and Rogue Theater co-founder DeVillers.

It seems quite appropriate that the play began with DeVillers dancing solo as Maude around the simple kitchen setting. The dancing is interrupted, however, by a knock on the door by an overeager Hannah Mae, searching for, and essentially forcing, friendship with a reluctant Maude, who responds, “One cup of coffee, and then you go!”

Hannah Mae pours two, returns and returns once more to Maude’s door where the females eventually bond over cheating and unappreciative husbands with witty conversation, a hilarious catfight, and surprising compassion that only comes from empathy and understanding. “Can you put your arm around me, Maude? Can you rock me real gentle?”

Lott Schnorr and DeVillers deliver touching, humorous performances that transcend the stereotypes the characters could easily slip into. Their unlikely friendship showcases how a life can be changed, enhanced, or turned completely upside down just by letting your neighbor in for a cup of coffee.

Rogue Theater presents Coupla White Chicks Sitting Around Talking on Nov. 29 & 30 at 7:30 pm and Dec. 1 at 4:30 pm. Proceeds benefit The Women’s Fund of Door County.

For more information or to reserve tickets, call 920.818.0816.