Yips! at the Stillwater Country Club

By Leslie Agard

Special to the Gazette

“ Be what you is

Cuz if you be

what you ain’t then

You ain’t what you is . . . “

. . .advises a devious spirit bent on making mischief (Chuck Nelson).

Working out of a suburban golf club, his job is to make golfer’s muff their short putts. Commonly called “the yips” this temporary malaise disables hands, eyes and thoughts. The ball goes nowhere near the hole, even for a top golfer like Robert Farley, Jr., a Paul Newman type (Jim Blaha).

Troubled by the situation, golf pro Maggie McLean (Susan Dahl, a Tina Fey type) confers with Zoe Pasternak (Diane White, a Bette Midler type). Zoe is an investigator from the Center for Disease Control. She has undertaken Farley’s sad case of the yips, later defined as a “psycho neural muscular disorder” by Dr. Evan Parr (Michael Traner, a Michael Douglas type) from the prestigious Mayno Clinic.

Enter Zeal Valliere (Kendall Beadleson), an appealing young islander with instructions to master the game of golf in order to wear the crown back in the Caribbean.

The best comedy hour you might get in a month, “Yips!” pokes good-natured fun at life via a swingin’ musical score.

Tom Prin – playwright, composer and former golfer – teams with Bridge Theatre’s Cynthia Elmquist to adapt this musical for a small stage.

Bridge Theatre’s mission is to produce original plays in the River Valley featuring local talent – these performers are not only local, they’re also gifted! In selecting intimate venues, Bridge Theatre has eliminated elaborate technical equipment. Advantages to this approach? It’s less expensive to produce the show and, more important, it creates a closer relationship between performers and audience.

Accoustical music sans mike, and moments of eye contact with the players – these important details draw us together. Surmounting obstacles has generated a dynamic new kind of theatre that appeals to your senses and leaves you smiling!