Audience participation encouraged at The Wedding Show

The Cherry Arts in Ithaca is well known for its diverse and out-of-the-ordinary shows and The Wedding Show is no exception. 

The Wedding Show is described as an immersive and interactive dinner theater show where you are a guest at a hilarious and heartfelt queer wedding where “guests” can mingle with the wedding party, eat, dance, and be merry. 

Producer and director Sylvie Froncek emphasized that while it is an immersive performance, it is only as interactive as guests want it to be. Upon entering the venue, guests will be asked to make a name tag and indicate their level of desired participation. This way, everyone will be able to feel comfortable and enjoy the evening. 

The Wedding Show is very different from the traditional play or musical, which was the hope for the lifelong creative and longtime event planner Froncek. 

“My whole family is full of musicians and artists and my background is in team building, I was in a band in high school where we really just had to plan and book our own gigs, and so this combination of event planning, facilitating, and team-building for strangers fits into all the facets of who I am,” Froncek said. “I spent a while living in Los Angeles and San Diego, five years in New Zealand where they do a French festival, like the Scottish for Scotland, a fringe festival. During that time I was going to all these amazing shows for people where they just take art and direction and pull the audience into the show.” Froncek described one of these shows she attended.

“One of my friends put on a show that you’d walk into this space, you get blindfolded and you get placed at a table with people you don’t know. You take the blindfolds off and you have a plate of food in front of you. And then they read slam poetry while you’re tasting things that have to do with the poems. It was so weird and so amazing to be in somebody else’s creative space.”

These sensory performances were the sparks that helped create the immersive experience of The Wedding Show in addition to Froncek’s personal experiences with weddings, well-planned and not so well-planned.

“I’ve been doing a bunch of weddings and some of them are absolutely ridiculous. Some had been really poorly planned and involved all of the guests helping to do something, but there was this amazing bonding that happened or where folks wanted to help and support and just made a mess into something beautiful,” Froncek said. “And I went to a couple of weddings that had just the silliest traditions you could imagine, like exchanging like giant swords or people had these amazing speeches that I wanted to laugh at and couldn’t because it was just a little bit too offensive, so I wanted to create a wedding where you can do all the things you can’t normally do at these kinds of events.”

Froncek added that, like the fringe festival type performances she attended, and the interactive strangers shows her friends put on in San Diego, she wants people to come to this show as strangers and leave as friends. Through different activities and the show itself, Froncek hopes people will be able to create lasting bonds with one another. 

The show is also more than interacting with guests and the wedding party. Food for the reception is included in the show’s ticket price and Ports of New York Winery, located directly across the street from The Cherry, will be open for guests who want alcoholic drinks or just need some fresh air, much like at a real wedding.

There will also be various activities including lawn games, a photo booth with props, mysteries to solve such as detecting the Wedding Crasher by uncovering clues presented throughout the evening and questioning fellow guests and the wedding party. Ithaca’s dj tuggle will be the DJ for the evening and Ithaca drag queen Femme de Violette is the MC.

Guests are to wear whatever makes them comfortable and are encouraged to wear their best wedding attire. The Wedding Show’s website states, “Wear what makes you feel fabulous. This is your chance to wear those heels that are too tall, or that ascot that is always too lavish. It’s a July wedding in upstate NY, so it could be warm and it could be wet, check the weather!”

The site also states that guests do not have to do anything that makes them uncomfortable, but are welcome to get into character. The wedding party will seek consent before bringing guests on the dance floor, or pulling them into a family photoshoot. With that said, they also ask that guests respect the personal space and requests of all the other guests and the wedding party. Guests who wish to be part of the show are welcome to reach out to Froncek at https://tinyurl.com/2c6xg52y. 

Children are also welcome at their parents discretion, and with a ticket if over the age of three, but Froncek said that this is like a real wedding where guests are unpredictable, there is loud music, and alcohol. 

Froncek added that an unintentional tradition at many weddings is the large amounts of waste created through food scraps, beverages, and decor so the primary objective for The Wedding Show is to be an event that is nearly zero-waste. Guests are asked to do their part to make this possible. All food waste will be donated to the sweet pigs at Saoirse Pastures and Remembrance Farm, all plates and utensils will be composted, and all bottles and cans will be recycled. Additionally the decorations are from reused and up-cycled materials or biodegradable materials. 

“I want to give a big thanks to B&W Supply, Ames Linen, and the Ithaca Buy-Nothing Community for making this possible,” Froncek said. “Without groups like this there would be much more waste at our show and within the community, but the community systems we have here make reusing and upcycling so easy.” 

Performance dates are July 20, 21, 22, 27, 28, 29 all from 6:00 p.m.-9:00 p.m. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. and close at 6:30 p.m. and guests are welcome to leave at any time. Tickets are non-refundable but may be transferred to a friend. Those who need to make a name change to the ticket or have general questions can email TheWeddingShowITH@gmail.com.