Members of Footlighters gave their audience a taste of Depression Era life at the Creston Museum on Saturday.
Three seatings for Hard Times Tea were treated to a locally written performance that focused on the alcohol prohibition issue and its end, all while guests dove into delectable delights and sipped tea or cold drinks in the hot summer sun.
“We usually get about 150 people to our summer tea,” museum manager Tammy Hardwick said, surveying the sparse crowd. “But we hold it on the same weekend each year and have larger crowds, rain or shine. Nothing is predictable, I’m afraid!”
The theatrical presentation included a meeting of the local temperance society, whose members included Mrs. Bossy (Deborah Mehrer), Mrs. Atherton (Jasmine Lothien), Mrs. Hagen (Joanna Wilson) and Mrs. Phillips (Gail Kitt). Of course no temperance discussion would be complete without contributions from the opposing point of view, and Kelly Mehrer and Jordan Koop starred as suitably besotted hoboes.
In the final scene, Mrs. Atherton announced that she had just received word that a vote supporting the temperance movement had failed, and proposed a curiously tolerant alcoholic toast to the news.