Iowa River Players

If you have stayed in touch with your old college or high school friends, invite them to meet you in Rowan on August 2, 3, 4 or 5 to take in a performance of Iowa River Players’ production of “The Dixie Swim Club”. Or, if you haven’t kept in contact with old friends, seeing this show could be the catalyst for planning that reunion with them.

The five women in the play met while on their college swim team. When the audience meets the five feisty women, twenty-some years have passed. They are all forty-four and, while life has taken them in different directions, they remain connected by gathering at the same beach cottage every year. Each successive scene follows the friends further down the road until, in the final scene, they are seventy-seven years of age.

For many, “The Dixie Swim Club” may have a familiar feel. It has all of the humor of “Steel Magnolias” and much of the poignance. It may call to mind so-called “chick flicks” such as “Thelma and Louise”. It may remind some of episodes of TV’s “Golden Girls” since one of the playwrights also wrote for that show.

The five friends in “The Dixie Swim Club” are portrayed by Karen Smith, Joleen Rolland and Luanne Krabbe (all of Belmond), Pamela Townsend and Kimberly Conlon (both of Clarion). Zach Reed (Lake Cornelia) and Melanie Mayberry (Hampton) are directing the production.

Tickets are $10 and may be purchased in advance with a credit card by calling 515-851-8487. They may also be purchased at the door before any performance. The play will be presented Thursday through Saturday, August 2 through 4 at 7:30. The final performance will be a Sunday matinee on August 5 at 2:00.