Island Theatre gives staged reading of ‘The Dixie Swim Club’

Island Theatre will produce a staged reading of the 2008 comedy “The Dixie Swim Club,” by Jessie Jones, Nicholas Hope and Jamie Wooten, at the Bainbridge Public Library at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 20 and Sunday, Feb. 21.

Island Theatre will produce a staged reading of the 2008 comedy “The Dixie Swim Club,” by Jessie Jones, Nicholas Hope and Jamie Wooten, at the Bainbridge Public Library at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 20 and Sunday, Feb. 21.

Performances are free, with donations welcome.

Five 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 Dixie Swim Club” focuses on four of those weekends and spans a period of 33 years.

Sheree, the spunky team captain, desperately tries to maintain her organized and perfect life and continues to be the group’s leader.

Dinah, the wisecracking overachiever, is a career dynamo. But her victories in the courtroom are in stark contrast to the frustrations of her personal life.

Lexie, pampered and outspoken, is determined to hold on to her looks and youth as long as possible and enjoys being married over and over and over again.

The self-deprecating and acerbic Vernadette, acutely aware of the dark cloud that hovers over her life, has decided to just give in and embrace the chaos.

And sweet, eager-to-please Jeri Neal experiences a late entry into motherhood that takes the whole club all by surprise.

As their lives unfold and the years pass, these women increasingly rely on one another, through advice and raucous repartee, to get through the challenges (men, sex, marriage, parenting, divorce, aging) that life flings at them. And when fate throws a wrench into one of their lives in the second act, these friends, proving the enduring power of teamwork, rally around their own with the strength and love that takes this comedy in a poignant and surprising direction.

Directed by Rozzella Kolbegger, the Island Theatre production of “The Dixie Swim Club” features Jackie O’Brien, Marybeth Redmond, Marie Sinclair, Michelle Allen and Christine Ramhorst Salo.

It is recommended for high school ages and up.

Visit www.islandtheatre.org for more information.