If there’s one thing I think we can all agree on is that pickleball is the great unifier. Pickleball calls folks together. It makes teammates of neighbors and friends of strangers… and there’s not many who are stranger than pickleballers!  

At least, that’s what those who don’t heed the call of the pickleball say.  They’re too busy pickling beets to step onto the court, where the real pickling happens.  The mere thought of looking across that net, into the eyes of a tiger with a paddle, strikes dread in their hearts and they while away their days watching Live with Kelly and Mark. After all, if you can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen—though, that’s also true in pickleball, so, I reckon we’ve come full circle: pickleball is the great unifier, everyone stay out of the kitchen.  

And speaking of Kelly and Mark, in late 2021, the illustrious playwright of this very production, Jeff Daniels, appeared on Live. During this interview, he discussed discovering the phenomenon that is pickleball through his wife, who had recently taken up, and become obsessed with the sport. As he listened to her boast about her dink drills, Daniels likened hearing about the sport to drinking paint. Regardless, something about the rising pickleball craze inspired him to pen the play you are about to enjoy.  

I believe it may have been the human factor that inspired Daniels. Pickleball really does seem to bring people together. For some it is just for exercise. For others it may be the social aspect. For our players who take the court in this story, it’s that something is missing, and pickleball presents them with a means by which to fill the void. After all, don’t we all have a sense of longing?  A want for something more?  

And just maybe, at the end of the day, when the dinks have dinked and the volleys have vollied, what we really need is each other.  

Now let’s all settle in and bask in the glory of the other great unifier:  laughter.

- Brandon Roberts, Director of Pickleball

Perfect
Kailey Kyle

Billie
Paris Bradstreet*

Larry
Nicholas Piper*

Sheldon
Vince McGill*

Spike
James Hendley

Ralph
Zacchaeus Kimbrell*

*Denotes member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors, and Stage Managers in the United States.

Director
Brandon Roberts

Scenic Designer
Derek Smith

Costume Designer
Lee Alexander Martin

Lighting Designer
Andrew Morehouse

Sound Designer
Seth Hutton

Playwright
Jeff Daniels

Production Stage Manager
Cindi A. Raebel*

Producing Artistic Director of Barter Theatre
Katy Brown

*Denotes members of the Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors, and Stage Managers in the United States.

Wardrobe Supervisor
Chelsea Bannan

Production Assistant
Brianna Boucher

Lighting and Sound Technician
Shawn Glenn Martin Knost

Production Sponsor

Underwritten by:

Wilderness Diagnostics & Therapeutics