This year’s show Bluff or Bust was about a group of ex-Bluffies who wanted to go to the Bluff Oyster & Food Festival.
Cast member Julie Manson said the cast had written the script themselves and promised to deliver some "crack-up" moments.
"We’re all leaving from Auckland, but we have a bit of a road trip on the way down where lots of exciting things happen at different stops.
"We haven’t got through a rehearsal yet where we haven’t had to stop because most of us are just in fits of laughter with tears streaming down our face."
She believed the cast enjoying what they were doing was the secret to the club’s production success.
"We are having so much fun, and loving what we’re doing, it feeds out to the audience who picks up on it — it’s infectious."
While not all cast members were extroverts, they had meshed well together, she said.
"I wouldn’t say we’re extroverts but, as a collective, we certainly feed off each other — put us together and we just become this Bluff Drama Club family ... you give each other a bit ... and that’s what makes it so much fun.
"When you get together, by hokey, we have a good time."
Manson said tickets for next Friday and Saturday evening had been "snapped up very quickly" but Thursday’s theatre restaurant still had some of the 160 tickets for sale. Door sales were available for Wednesday evening’s family show and supper.
The Bluff Drama Club had been running its annual theatre restaurant for decades. People could come for a meal and load up on Mrs Hart’s meatballs at the buffet, and the menu would again feature fresh blue cod, she said
This year’s cast line up would include three new members as well as three returnees who had been on a break.
Producer April Fisher’s contribution to the club earned her a recent Arts Murihiku Southland Creative Arts Award — Leadership in the Arts.
As a club life member, she was someone who embodied the heart and soul of the club who had progressed from choreographer, to director and now producer, Manson said.
"Her evolution over the five decades is pretty amazing.
"April just knows how to bring out the best of us."
The club’s set designer, Malcolm McDonald was also a Creative Excellence Award winner.
This year’s set at the Bluff Town Hall was "absolutely amazing".
In the past they had double storeys, "but this year we’ve got a full bus on the stage and it’s fully kitted out — it’s got a horn, it’s got lights, it’s got an opening door and an engine bay that opens.
"Malcolm, with his creative amazing-ness, made us a bus."
- By Toni McDonald
