Actors' Mission presents 'The Sweet Delilah Swim Club' 

The strength of friendship across the years is explored in the Actors' Mission's newest production, "The Sweet Delilah Swim Club." 

The play follows the friendship of five women who met on their college swim team and get together once every year at a cabin called "The Sweet Delilah." The women share a time of bonding as they keep up with each other's lives, from marriages and divorces to children and jobs. 

"You kind of track their friendship," Director Shane Westfall explained, saying the play is mostly a comedy with some tragic moments. "It really is just about people supporting each other and how important friendship is."

Since the play focuses on five women over the course of several decades, the process of putting the production together has included unique challenges and rewards. 

"We were fortunate enough to get five people with very distinct personalities, and that was very good for the script," Westfall said of the cast. 

While the actresses all have a strong presence of their own, they have each found unique ways to channel themselves into their different characters, finding there are times when they relate to the women they portray and times they don't. 

Ann Marie Mattila, who plays Vernadette, explained her character "has some of the worst luck on the planet," so her defense mechanism is sarcasm. 

Mattila said she can be sarcastic herself at times, but her main connection to the character is through Vernadette's voice. Since the play takes place in the south, Mattila has loved the chance to speak with an accent, which makes her feel connected to her mother who is from Virginia. 

"I just channel my momma's side of the family," Mattila said, dropping easily into the accent.

Aubrey Jeppson has the challenge of playing Sheree, the former captain of the swim team.

"She's pretty type A," Jeppson said of Sheree. "[She] likes to stay organized, likes to keep everybody kind of under control if she can, sometimes to a point that it annoys the other characters and sometimes to the point that it pleases them immensely because she's prepared for a crisis."

Jeppson relates to being organized, but pointed out she's different from Sheree because she's not a mom and she's not a horrible chef.

Crisye Dyess relates strongly to her character Lexie, although she feels a little bad admitting it, since Lexie is predominantly "very vain, very full of herself and outrageous." Dyess said she relates to wanting to look good and wanting to be the center of attention, but she also sees how Lexie is a fun and a caring person who's not as shallow as she initially appears.

As they connect with their own characters, portraying the group of friends onstage has also made the actresses connect with one another over the roughly five weeks of rehearsals.

"Our cast seems to work really well together," Mattila said.

"Everyone is so fun to work with," Dyess agreed, saying she's gotten close to her fellow cast members throughout the process.

"All five of them are the stars," Westfall said, explaining one of the unique aspects of having so few characters is how vitally important each cast member is.

While having five stars is fun for the ensemble story, it also makes it that much more difficult when someone is sick or can't make it to a rehearsal, according to Westfall. Despite these challenges, he said "overall it's been nice working with that smaller cast."

The cast and crew brought together for this production also include "some new faces that we haven't had in the Actors' Mission previously," Westfall said.

Some of those new faces include Dyess, who has been performing on stages all her life but considers this production to be the first she's been in as an adult, and Jeppson, who said she hasn't acted in roughly 20 years.

Both the "new faces" and Actors' Mission veterans have worked through challenges of the production together, from memorizing lines to, in Mattila's case, learning to use crutches to portray her injury-prone character.

One of the biggest challenges for both cast and crew members has been portraying the aging process for all the characters as they meet up over the span of four decades. Volunteers helping with costumes and makeup had to work on the visual changes, portraying different styles in different decades and using makeup to make actors appear younger or older. The cast members had to work on portraying their characters' changes in mannerisms to show their age, while also holding true to their core personalities.

"Not a lot changes with her," Dyess said of Lexie. "She gets a lot of implants, she changes her hair color, but she's still the same person."

"It's really interesting to think about just how, even though the characters do progress, they're still them," Jeppson said. "They stay pretty true to themselves throughout the entire story." Mattila agreed, adding that "their core personality pretty much stays the same, but life experience changes all of us."

Seeing the characters stay true to themselves and each other despite the years and the changes they go through connects to some of the play's most touching moments and important messages.

"The final scene is quite poignant," Mattila explained. "Overall it's a very funny play, but the last scene has got a few moments that, if we do it right, should cause some tears."

Westfall admitted to often fighting back tears himself during the final scene, even though he's seen and read it several times now. Seeing it come together and watching the actors nail the emotions has been one of the most rewarding parts of the process for Westfall, and he hopes everyone will come enjoy the play for themselves and learn from its story of friendship.

"That overall message I'm really trying to get across is how important friendship is and having a social support system," Westfall said. "Today so many of us, especially post-COVID, tend to be very isolated, and the show makes it very salient how important those social connections are."

Dyess hopes the play will make those who see it think about choosing their friends wisely and realize you can have friends you can both argue with and have fun with, and regardless of your situation or age or location you can always go be with your friends.

Jeppson also hopes audience members will take away the concept that "if you care for your good friends and keep in touch you can have something for a long time, and that you can have a little family that you've established through the years."

"The Sweet Delilah Swim Club" will be performed at the Broadway Theater in Rock Springs at 7 p.m. June 16, 17, 18, 24 and 25, with a matinee at 2 p.m. June 26. As with all Actors' Mission plays, a complimentary meal will be served one hour before each performance, and admission to the play is free.