Cappy Ricks

Performances

March 3 & 4, 1932

Venue

Illini Theatre

Synopsis

This farce gives us Cappy Ricks, a weatherbeaten old sea dog devoted to his daughter, and underneath the rough exterior there is a heart of gold. His obsession is Matt Peasley, first mate on one of his vessels, and Cappy Ricks ships Matt out with Captain Ole Peterson, a veritable sea wolf, with instructions to put Matt through the worst and cure him of his alleged “freshness.” When the ship returns from the voyage, Cappy finds Matt is in command after haven beaten the surly captain. From that time on Matt proceeds to outgeneral Cappy and win the hand of Florence, Cappy’s daughter.

Author: Peter B. Kynes

Historian’s Corner

Here is a partial cost breakdown for the play “Cappy Ricks.” Many of the shows of this time period usually cost about the same amount of money, unless there was more than one set, which required six stage hands instead of four, or the costumes required higher budgets. To rent the Illini Theatre the cost was $175.00; The Pantagraph advertising was $56.70; Samuel French Co.- royalties were $75.00 for two performances; United Photo-$2.50 for one 8 x 10 photo; Lang-Fuller Printing-Programs for two nights-$18.50; Pay for stage employees-$124.35; pay for the front of the house-box office staff and doorman to theatre was $12.00; Frank Vernor-director-$100.00 (the only paid person in the organization was the director of the play); and The Witmer School of Dance-rehearsal space-$12.50. There were a number of other costs, but the above costs represent the majority of expenditures to the organization in the 1931-1932 season.