The play’s the thing: Dale Sweetland (shown here at a candidates’ forum during the 2008 race for Congress) may have found his true calling. {MD PHOTO}
Sweetland was observed last weekend on the big stage at his alma mater, Fabius Elementary School, playing the part of all three little pigs in a fairy tale farce put on by the Fabius area Aspiring Community Theater (ACT). Switching effortlessly between the roles of Piggy #1, Piggy # 2, and Piggy # 3, Sweetland grunted and squealed as he made the case to a visiting television reporter that he should win the opportunity to have his house completely made over by a TV crew from Extreme Home Makeover.
The theatrical competition was stiff, and included the Old Woman who lived in a shoe, who in this modern fairy tale was pregnant with octuplets. The play, Fairy Land: The Newsical, featuring some of the most talented thespians and comic actors from all over Fabius and as far away as Pompey, was the seventh annual production written and produced by ACT.
Though it did not get broadcast on C-Span, the performance did play to a full house both Friday and Saturday nights, and a Sunday matinee. And unlike the steep price associated with a run for public office—Sweetland spent more than $200,000 on his Congressional run, a mere pittance compared to the $1.5 million Dan Maffei spent to beat him—admission to the production was absolutely free.
—Ed Griffin-Nolan
