Laughter is the best medicine, as the saying goes, and Stained Glass Theatre will offer just that in its upcoming production, "Every Little Crook and Nanny."
Written by Pat Cook, "Every Little Crook and Nanny" is a comedy that follows Lille Scones, a retired nanny who operates a boarding house. Scones is excited when an old friend, Stuart, begins renting a room from her. Little does she know Stuart has a master scheme to rob the bank around the corner.
"Every Little Crook and Nanny" plays into Stained Glass Theatre's theme this year - "Season of Healing" - director Robin Riley said.
"With everything going on the last couple of years with COVID, the (Afghanistan) war and the elections, people need to laugh," she said. "I feel like this is a healing play for so many people. People just need to put their worries aside for two hours and just come and laugh and feel good."
While her favorite part has been watching and directing the funny moments in the comedy, Riley said, the difficult part of directing the production has been understanding the differences between performing a comedy versus a drama. Several of the actors are used to performing in dramas, assistant director Mark Howard added, so they had to adjust to the comedy performance.
"In drama, you want to have things be more suspenseful and dramatic. In comedy, it's more boom, boom, boom," actor Grayson Janeczko said. "Things are funny when you're not expecting them so you want them to come out fast, so it's difficult to get that switch in your head."
Janeczko, who plays Stuart, said he enjoys playing a character who is seen as a hero and a villain.
"It's an interesting complex where any time the entirety of the other characters are around, Stu's a pretty normal character, but as soon as it's just him and his partner, he snaps into this entirely different person," Janeczko said. "It's really fun to see his different personalities because I can be schemish or a normal person."
Stained Glass Theatre, located at 830 E. High St., will host "Every Little Crook and Nanny" at 7:30 p.m. today and Friday and Sept. 16-17, as well as at 2 p.m. Saturday and Sept. 18.
Tickets cost $7 on opening night and $10 for all other shows. Those interested can reserve tickets at sgtmidmo.org/reservations/.