About the Play:

Dearly Beloved is a full-length comedy by Jessie Jones, Nicholas Hope, Jamie Wooten (collectively called "Jones Hope Wooten" in their credits). The wacky Futrelle/Dubberly family has gathered for Tina Jo's wedding. The reception will be catered by Clovis Sanford's House of Meat (with potluck sides), but where the heck are the bride and groom? Southern-fried comedy by the authors of Dearly Departed.

Dearly Beloved is the wonderfully funny, shockingly true-to-life and on-target skewering of a Texas family on the occasion of the wedding of one of its favourite daughters. Hilarity, Texas style! An over-the-top wedding, three feuding sisters and a church full of small town eccentrics. What could possibly go wrong? In this fast-paced, laugh-a-minute comedy, the Futrelle sisters of Fayro, Texas – Frankie, Twink and their estranged sister, Honey Raye – are thrown together to pull off a family wedding. But it is not going well. Frankie's oldest twin daughter is marrying the son of the queen of what passes for high society in Fayro and Frankie is desperate to make this antebellum-themed wedding an elegant affair. It soon becomes obvious that Fate has other plans… Between Frankie's suspicions of her husband's infidelity, Twink's revamp of the wedding dinner into a tacky potluck supper and Honey Raye's bombshell news that's fueled her mysterious move back to town, the chances for this wedding being a success are fading fast. In spite of the best efforts of Miss Geneva Musgrave – the cantankerous wedding coordinator – and the homespun enthusiasm provided by Dairy Dog employee, Raynerd Chisum – the proceedings go hysterically off course with the stunning revelation that the bride-to-be and her intended have fled town. The Futrelles scramble to keep the mutinous wedding guests in place by staging a hastily thrown-together talent show in the sanctuary while the Deputy Sheriff races through the countryside to collar the runaway couple and drag them back for the “I do's.” This joyful Southern-fried "Jones Hope Wooten" comedy about love, marriage, sisterhood and three hundred pounds of good, ol' Texas barbeque will have your audience laughing all the way down the aisle!

Dearly Beloved premiered in 2005 at The Ashville Community Theatre in Ashville, North Carolina. Since then the play has been produced widely at high schools, colleges, and community theatres across the North America.

Cast: 7 female, 5 male  (alternate casting 6 female, 4 male with doubling)

What people say:

"A very, very funny play… you won't want to miss this." — Bowie Blade-News (Bowie, MA)

"Dearly Beloved likely will remain a favorite for small theater companies because, like the potluck at the wedding reception, it's a healthy dose of comfort food." — Los Angeles Daily News

About the Playwright:

Jessie Jones co-authored the Off-Broadway Southern-fried funeral comedy, Dearly Departed, which has become a perennial theatre favourite across the US and around the world. She also co-wrote its hit feature film adaptation, Kingdom Come, which was released by Fox Searchlight Films and starred LL Cool J and Academy Award winner Whoopi Goldberg.

Nicholas Hope, winner of the Texas New Playwrights' Award, was Director of Casting for Theatre Communications Group in New York, The Goodman Theatre in Chicago and ABC Television in New York and Los Angeles. With Jessie Jones, he wrote for the Emmy-winning Disney television series Teacher's Pet, starring Tony Award winner, Nathan Lane. Together with Jones and Wooten, Nicholas wrote for USA, WB, UPN, SYFY, Nickelodeon and Fox.

Jamie Wooten was a writer and producer for many seasons of the classic television series The Golden Girls, where he won the Writers Guild of America award. He co-created the CBS series, The Five Mrs. Buchanans, starring Oscar winner Eileen Heckart and Tony winners Judith Ivey and Harriet Harris. He was the executive producer of the Fox comedy, The Crew, NBC's For Your Love and UPN's Half & Half. A Billboard Award-winning songwriter, he has written tunes for television and film.