Press Release: “The Dixie Swim Club” at Cotuit Center for the Arts

Cotuit Center for the Arts presents “The Dixie Swim Club” in the Black Box Theater September 13 to 30. Performances are Thursday through Saturday at 7:30 PM and Sunday at 2 PM. There is no show on Sunday, September 23.

Five unforgettable Southern women, whose friendships began many years ago on their college swim team, set aside a long weekend every August to recharge those relationships. Free from husbands, kids, and jobs, they meet at the same beach cottage on North Carolina’s Outer Banks to catch up, laugh, and meddle in each other’s lives. The women increasingly rely on one another, through advice and raucous repartee, to get through the challenges (men, sex, marriage, parenting, divorce, and aging) that life flings at them, including some hilarious and unexpected twists and turns.

“The Dixie Swim Club” is directed by Janet Leahy and produced by Joyce Ginouves, who also plays Sheree, the spunky former captain of the swim team who continues to lead the group. She is joined by Davien Gould as Dinah, a wise-cracking, martini-drinking, still-single lawyer; Susan Carliss as Lexie, who has embraced plastic surgery and marriage—multiple times; Jennifer Andrews as Jeri Neal, who became a nun after college; and Theresa Cedro as Vernadette, who despite her hard luck, embraces life with humor.

Despite their different personalities, the women are inseparable. Their vacations are fun, but therapeutic, as they share their lives (the frivolous and the serious), their hopes and fears, and their successes and failures.

“The Dixie Swim Club” is a tribute to the durability of women’s friendships. The characters keep each other honest, even as their loyalties to each other and their commitment to ‘the team’ are tested throughout the play,” said Leahy.

As one reviewer wrote, the play “combines the heart-warming ambience and enduring friendships of ‘Steel Magnolias’ with the sassy, fast-paced repartee of television’s ‘The Golden Girls.’”

“The Dixie Swim Club” was written by Jessie Jones, Nicholas Hope, and Jamie Wooten, collectively known as Jones Hope Wooten. They specialize in laugh-out-loud comedies and creating vivid, strong roles for women.

Tickets are $20, $15 for members. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit artsonthecape.org, or call 508-428-0069. Cotuit Center for the Arts is at 4404 Route 28 in Cotuit.

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What:

“The Dixie Swim Club”

Where:

Cotuit Center for the Arts, 4404 Route 28, Cotuit

When:

September 13 to 30. Thursday through Saturday at 7:30 PM; Sunday at 2 PM (No show on Sunday, September 23)

Admission:

$20, $15 for members

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