Fronting the Order

Fronting the Order

"FRONTING THE ORDER" A LESS INNOCENT 1950s

by Chuck Graham

TucsonStage.com

"Fronting the Order" is set in the summer of 1959, in hard scrabble Orleans, New York, a tiny town way upstate on the St. Lawrence River. More specifically, in an artfully detailed Orleans diner equipped with those unforgettable Formica tabletops and red plastic chairs, all standing on shiny chrome legs.

Serving coffee is the attractive but worried waitress Evie (Denise Blum). She has been waiting a very long time for that certain man who would take her away from all this. When four nicely dressed guys come in (three of them young enough to be interesting), her future suddenly has potential. When these guys start talking about encyclopedias, she figures they must be educated.

But "Fronting the Order" isn't about the flight of Cupid's arrows in that difficult era before online dating. "Fronting the Order" is about…fronting the order. We learn this was a shady strategy common in the gritty world of encyclopedia salesmen who were always getting unreasonable sales quotas crammed down their parched throats.

Beowulf Alley Theatre is developing a strong reputation for encouraging new playwrights, and developing an audience eager to be a part of this encouragement. Deciding to join with Wellangoode Productions to showcase "Fronting the Order" adds more muscle to that reputation.