Ringwald brings the fire with ‘Grown-Ups’ production

FERNDALE — The next show at the Ringwald Theatre will see the actors position themselves at a campfire.

The Ringwald’s performance of the play “The Grown-Ups” will run from Oct. 11 to Nov. 4 at Affirmations, 290 W. Nine Mile Road.

“The Grown-Ups” tells the story of a group of camp counselors trying to “mold the leaders of tomorrow when tomorrow is looking bleaker and bleaker,” a news release states.

Camden Maccagnone, of Rochester, plays one of the leads, Aidan, in his second show with the Ringwald. When he first read the play, Maccagnone said he audibly gasped and was left speechless by the script, which he also connected to as a former camp counselor himself.

“I read this script, and I actually had to sit up from my seat and pretty much lock in to what exactly I was reading,” he said. “For me, that’s a huge green flag, not only for a script but for just any book in general, when you have to sit up and be like, ‘Holy s—, is this actually happening?’”

Maccagnone said he was particularly excited for the audiences to experience the space the show will be in, as it brings out the full potential of what a black box space can do.

“I’m really excited for audiences to step into the space and really become immersed in the world of this show,” he said. “Just some of the characters and their emotional journeys that we see throughout the show, one of the counselors is, like, brand-new, they’ve never been to this camp before, and the other counselors have been going since they were 7. So really, the audience can relate to this counselor the most out of anyone, and just seeing even their emotional journey throughout the show is very exciting, and I’m very (much) looking forward to seeing their reactions to it.”

The show is directed by Jennifer Goff, who is the chair of the theater program at Centre College in Danville, Kentucky. Goff, who’s on a sabbatical from her job, has been a friend of Ringwald stage manager Brandy Joe Plambeck since they went to graduate school at Wayne State University.

Goff said she wanted to do a show that spoke to this moment in time as the country runs up to another election and that could be engaging on a lot of topics.

“This play really deals a lot with the sense of extremism and othering that we see around us, and it seemed pretty apt,” she said. “It was a script that I read a year or two ago and was immediately taken with, and saw it as something that was doing something really important. It’s a play that’s about young characters, they’re all in their 20s, and I think that we sometimes forget to treat young people with seriousness, and I think this really sort of highlights the ways in which society has been failing our young people.”

The show has been rehearsing for close to a month now, and Goff is excited for audiences to experience the play with this cast.

“I’m also just constantly wowed by the actors,” she said. “They are really, really thoughtful and fun and energetic, and I think the audience is really going to respond to their humor and their heart.”

The show dates and times for the play are 8 p.m. on Fridays, Saturdays and Mondays, and 3 p.m. on Sundays. There also will be two VIP outdoor performances on Oct. 25 and Nov. 1.

Tickets cost $25 for Friday to Sunday shows and $15 for Mondays. The two outdoor performances cost $35.

To purchase tickets and for more information, visit theringwald.com.