By Ashlyn Little<\/p>\n
The Impromptu Players will be kicking off their 2026 season with the final installment of the Southern Fried comedies this weekend at the Wooten Theatre in DeRidder.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The \u201cLast Round-Up of the Guacamole Queens\u201d was written by Jessie Jones, Nicholas Hope and Jamie Wooten. Wooten was also a writer and producer for many seasons of the classic television series \u201cThe Golden Girls.\u201d This play is the third and final story about the Verdeen cousins \u2014 Gaynelle, Peaches and Jimmy Wyvette \u2014 of Sweetgum, Texas. The cousins are up against the clock as they frantically attempt to produce the ultimate high school reunion before the old building is demolished \u2014 but they\u2019ve got a bushel of obstacles to overcome before they can pull off this miracle. Gaynell is reeling from the humiliating demise of her loathed ex-husband; Peaches\u2019 romantic life has tanked because the older her dates get, the more horrified they are by her job as a mortuary cosmetologist; and Jimmie Wyvette is trying to live down her on-camera catfight with a local televangelist.<\/p>\n
The \u201cLast Round-Up of the Guacamole Queens\u201d is directed by Maria Sanchez and features the same cast in the five lead roles as the previous two installments, \u201cRex\u2019s Exes\u201d and \u201cThe Red Velvet Cake War.\u201d Annda Purdue, Lori Cantrell, Heaven Kennedy, Regena Calmes and Claude Moses will reprise their roles as Jimmie Wyvette Verdeen, Peaches Verdeen Bellrose, Gaynelle Verdeen, LaMerle Verdeen Minshew and Aubrey Verdeen.<\/p>\n
Sanchez said the five cast members have a \u201cfamily bond\u201d that adds to the charm of the production. In 2024 the Impromptu Players put on \u201cRex\u2019s Exes\u201d and in 2025 put on \u201cThe Red Velvet Cake War.\u201d Sanchez said while all three plays are about the same family, if you have not seen the other two you will still enjoy the final installment on its own.<\/p>\n
Sanchez is also on the board of the Impromptu Players, joined the theater family in 2004 and began directing plays in 2018. She said once her children were grown she was looking for an activity to do and a new hobby.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a really fun organization to be a part of and we\u2019re really supportive of each other and we\u2019re always looking for volunteers. If you\u2019re not interested in acting there\u2019s tons of other stuff you can do in the theater like work lights and sound, help build the set, create props; there\u2019s something for everybody,\u201d Sanchez said.<\/p>\n
Sanchez says the final chapter of the Verdeen family is a fun play to watch and at the end of the play you will see the lesson to take away from it is that family always comes first.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Verdeen cousins always stick together,\u201d Sanchez said.<\/p>\n
Regena Calmes plays LaMerle Verdeen Minshew in the \u201cLast Round-Up of the Guacamole Queens.\u201d Calmes began performing in 2024, her first performance was in \u201cRex\u2019s Exes.\u201d Calmes said she got her start with Impromptu Players when she attended one performance as a guest. During a show a cast member pulled her onstage and while she was scared and nervous, she loved the feeling she got once on stage.<\/p>\n
\u201cI told myself right then and there that I was going to try out for the next play and I did,\u201d Calmes said.<\/p>\n
Calmes said once on stage it just felt right even though she never thought she\u2019d be able to speak in public or thought she could memorize all the lines. Calmes says her character, Aunt LaMerle, is a well-spoken \u201cprickly pear\u201d who she thinks holding up the family name is the No. 1 goal and she\u2019s all the time chasing the Verdeen cousins to be sure the family name stays good in the public eye.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe is very outspoken, well-dressed and doesn\u2019t mind speaking her mind and will put you in your place,\u201d Calmes said of her character.<\/p>\n
Calmes said the five characters, including herself, have performed the three shows together since 2024 and have become less like friends and more like family. She said after the final show on Saturday night she will miss the camaraderie that has formed.<\/p>\n
Robert Lewis plays Grover Lout, Sweetgum\u2019s Sheriff. Lewis said the sheriff tries to keep law and order in the town but because Sweetgum is a small town sometimes his integrity is questioned.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe tries to do the right thing, but sometimes he can be influenced,\u201d Lewis said of his character.<\/p>\n
Lewis grew up around theater and inherited his theatrical talent from his mother. Lewis said now that his kids are grown he wanted something to do in his spare time so he got involved with local theater in 2024. This will be the fourth play he\u2019s been in and the second one playing Grover Lout.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a great hobby and I enjoy making people laugh. I enjoy putting a smile on people\u2019s faces,\u201d Lewis said.<\/p>\n
Sanchez said the play is for all ages.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a fun, fun play to watch, it\u2019s laugh after laugh after laugh, not just the jokes but the physical humor and the activity involved in it and it\u2019s good clean fun,\u201d Sanchez said.<\/p>\n
Friday night\u2019s performance is show only and Saturday night is dinner and a show. The dinner show on Saturday will begin with an appetizer of chips, salsa and two different guacamoles in which the audience will get to vote on which one is the best. The main dish is a hearty chicken tortilla soup with cornbread and for dessert is vanilla ice cream with churros.<\/p>\n
The play is two hours long, including a brief intermission. Friday night is show only with doors opening at 6:30 p.m. and the show beginning at 7 p.m. Saturday night is a dinner show. Doors will open at 6:30 p.m., dinner will be served at 7 p.m. and the show will begin at 8 p.m.<\/p>\n
Concessions will be available both nights. Reservations are required ahead of time for the dinner show and must be purchased ahead of time by either calling the Wooten Theatre at 337-221-8543 or by visiting impromptuplayers.com for tickets. Show only tickets for Friday night can be purchased online, by phone or at the door. The Wooten Theatre is located at 102 E 1st St. in DeRidder.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Ashlyn Little The Impromptu Players will be kicking off their 2026 season with the final installment of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":154999,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[64157,9,24,63,122,124,123,64158],"class_list":{"0":"post-154998","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-queens","8":"tag-impromptu-players","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-city","11":"tag-nyc","12":"tag-queens","13":"tag-queens-headlines","14":"tag-queens-news","15":"tag-wooten-theatre"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154998\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}