{"id":18933,"date":"2025-10-23T03:49:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T03:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/18933\/"},"modified":"2025-10-23T03:49:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T03:49:11","slug":"santa-clara-players-2025-2026-season-opens-with-laugh-out-loud-murder-mystery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/18933\/","title":{"rendered":"Santa Clara Players 2025-2026 Season Opens with Laugh-Out-Loud Murder Mystery"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Santa Clara Players 2025-2026 season launches Oct. 24 with a comical whodunit\u2014\u201cThe Crazy Quilt Club\u201d by Texas native Pat Cook<\/a>, a prolific and now retired playwright with 157 published plays\u2014plus a few that didn\u2019t make it.<\/p>\n

\u201cCan\u2019t knock it out the park every time, you know,\u201d said Cook.<\/p>\n

In \u201cThe Crazy Quilt Club,\u201d published in 1993, Cook\u2019s female sleuth lives in a small, private residence for retired women who knit, crochet, do needlepoint, make crazy quilts, drink punch out of China cups and get murdered.<\/p>\n

SPONSORED<\/p>\n

\"Sutter<\/a><\/p>\n

SPONSORED<\/p>\n

\"BrainShare_Ad_Image.\"\"BrainShare_Ad_Image.\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThis show is what happens when you combine \u2018Murder, She Wrote\u2019 and \u2018The Golden Girls\u2019 and throw in a little of Netflix\u2019s \u2018The Residence,\u2019\u201d said show director Allie Bailey, a Campbell resident who has directed 17 productions since 2017, including \u201cFour Old Broads\u201d<\/a> with the Santa Clara Players in 2023.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Crazy Quilt Club\u201d is the fourth SC Players show by Cook, who was, in fact, inspired by \u201cMurder, She Wrote,\u201d which aired 1984-1996.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wrote \u2018The Crazy Quilt Club\u2019 because of the popularity of \u2018Murder, She Wrote,\u2019\u201d said Cook. \u201cAlso, the publisher was always happy to receive a \u2018woman-heavy\u2019 cast.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bailey is gratified to direct a witty, all-female cast.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany plays and musicals have more male roles than female, and the Bay Area is rich in female presenting talent. Oftentimes, you have five or six women called back for one role in a show, and this show gave me the opportunity to cast nine talented women,\u201d said Bailey.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to uplift and give opportunities to an age group of female actors that often get overlooked in the Bay Area,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Elizabeth Lowenstein, who plays Viola, carpools from Morgan Hill.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always enjoy playing a role in a murder mystery, especially at Santa Clara Players, where I can be guided by smart directors and have fun along with our supportive local audiences,\u201d said Lowenstein.\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s well worth the drive to SC Players, whether I\u2019m in a show or in the audience.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Robin Harris carpools from San Martin. She is thrilled to play sassy, happy-go-lucky Myrtle\u2014the closest character to her personality that she has played.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheater, as we know it, came from religious rites celebrating Dionysus, the god of the dual nature of joy and madness; god of the harvest, wine, chaos, and theater,\u201d pointed out Harris. \u201cI think that he would be pleased [with this production]!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLive theater is so important, especially during this time in our history,\u201d said Bailey. \u201cYour participation is vital. Please go see a local production and help keep theater alive in the Bay Area.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cCome laugh with us and help solve the murder mystery that is \u2018The Crazy Quilt Club!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Visit SC Players online<\/a> or call (408) 248-7993 for tickets to one of the eight performances\u2014Oct. 24 through Nov. 8\u2014in the 71-seat Hall Pavilion (behind Santa Clara\u2019s Triton Museum of Art), 1750 Don Ave. at Warburton Avenue.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are doing this play partly because we have quite a few quilters in our audience,\u201d confided SC Players producer George Doeltz.<\/p>\n

The SC Players season continues in 2026 with two classics: Neil Simon\u2019s \u201cBarefoot in the Park\u201d (Feb. 27-March 14)\u00a0 and John Cariani\u2019s \u201cAlmost, Maine\u201d (May 22-June 6).<\/p>\n

Additionally, the SC Players Travelling Troupe<\/a> is an outreach program that performs affordable, 30- to 60-minute programs for community and private groups.<\/p>\n

Note: Weekly\/Silicon Valley Voice readers can use the promo code weekly for a 20% discount on \u201cThe Crazy Quilt Club\u201d tickets.<\/p>\n

SPONSORED<\/p>\n

\"SiliconValleyVoice_Ad2\"\"SiliconValleyVoice_Ad2\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Santa Clara Players 2025-2026 season launches Oct. 24 with a comical whodunit\u2014\u201cThe Crazy Quilt Club\u201d by Texas…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18934,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[88,90,89,197,15792,2921,2922],"class_list":["post-18933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-santa-clara","tag-santa-clara-players","tag-santa-clara-weekly","tag-silicon-valley-voice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}