For some people, one marriage is enough. But in Sandy Lake, the more weddings the better. At least for a couple named Tony and Tina.

Sandy Lake Senior Center is bringing back the famous matrimonial play, dinner theater-style, on May 16 and 17 at McQuiston Center by the Park, 29 Railroad St.

"Tony and Tina are walking down the aisle again," said center Director Heidi Perrine with a laugh. The center, with the help of locals including funeral director Scott Black, Sandy Lake Mayor Jim Greenlee and the Rev. Joe MacDonald of Sandy Lake Presbyterian Church, will present the play again.

The center originally presented "Tony and Tina's Wedding" in October but Mrs. Perrine said the response was so great that they had to offer it again.

"First of all, there are people who didn't get tickets the first time and asked us 'Aren't you going to do it again?' Then there were people who saw it who had so much fun that said they would go again," she said. "We thought about Valentine's Day, but we were concerned about the snow. So we thought May would be a good time to do it."

Not only was the public response good, but the senior center fund-raiser was successful enough for the center to share some of the wealth with the community this time around.

"We don't want to keep taking and taking," Mrs. Perrine said. "We thought this time we'd like to share our profits since the community helped us by coming out to see it and (locals) performing in it."

After covering their costs, the center will be splitting the proceeds between Lakeview Area Helping Hands and Lakeview Educational Foundation, a recently-formed grant, scholarship and award fund for Lakeview students.

Mrs. Perrine thinks the reason for the play's success was how well the actors performed.

"I think people were pleasantly surprised at just how professional it was," she said. "We even had someone ask us if we had hired one of the actors from the actors guild."

She said the added touch of residents seeing people they know in the roles was a plus.

"It was fun for people to come in and see people they know in those roles," she said. "But people who didn't know them were surprised at the caliber of acting they saw."

The play is family friendly and includes an Italian dinner buffet, an open non-alcoholic bar, a wedding toast, wedding cake and music provided by the band "Voyage."

"We cleaned up the actual script from the play and we're not having the alcohol. It is just a clean and fun evening," Mrs. Perrine said.

Ticket donations are $15 per person and, according to Mrs. Perrine, they're going faster than slices of wedding cake.

For more information, call (724) 376-3608.

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