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| Debra Rockey (right) plays Vernadette, who bonds with her swim club "sisters" including Erin Osgood (left) as Lexie |
That Debra Rockey goes by her last name might not surprise
you. “Rockey” suits her personality and physical presence to a tee. But what’s even cooler is how well her name fits her character in the Dixie Swim Club. Rockey plays Vernadette Simms, a true
fighter and survivor if ever there was one. In Dixie, five
college swim teammates reunite at an Outer Banks beach house for a girls-only
weekend every August that is always full of fun, fights, and twists of fate.
Rockey offers comic relief as
Vernadette, a hard luck case who has a deadbeat husband, a felonious son, and a
daughter who bounces between cults.
Rockey describes Vernadette as “a solid woman - physically and mentally.
I think Vern knows that the way you make God laugh is by telling him your
plans. She just keeps on going through everything that is sent her way.
Nothing will get Vern down and what keeps her going are her swim club,
her biscuits, and her memories.”
Despite her bad luck, as Rockey says, “Vernadette is a survivor. She may not be the cutest character or the best dressed or have any waist (she hasn't seen hers in years) but she is as solid as a rock. And, she lives for August in the Outer Banks with her four fabulous friends. It is the one thing that she can count on - the team that always wins, in and out of the water.” Similarly, of her fellow actors, Rockey says, “I love my ‘swim team’. We have been working together for several months now - filming the videos, eating, rehearsing, eating - and it feels like we have known each other for twenty years. Each of us are magically a living version of our Dixie Swim Club self. Typically I perform musical theater, so it has been a bit strange to be on stage and not singing my heart out. But know that on the inside, I am singing - 'cause I'm just thrilled to be a member of this great cast and to share this story with our audience.”
Despite her bad luck, as Rockey says, “Vernadette is a survivor. She may not be the cutest character or the best dressed or have any waist (she hasn't seen hers in years) but she is as solid as a rock. And, she lives for August in the Outer Banks with her four fabulous friends. It is the one thing that she can count on - the team that always wins, in and out of the water.” Similarly, of her fellow actors, Rockey says, “I love my ‘swim team’. We have been working together for several months now - filming the videos, eating, rehearsing, eating - and it feels like we have known each other for twenty years. Each of us are magically a living version of our Dixie Swim Club self. Typically I perform musical theater, so it has been a bit strange to be on stage and not singing my heart out. But know that on the inside, I am singing - 'cause I'm just thrilled to be a member of this great cast and to share this story with our audience.”
While this is
her Barn debut, Rockey has performed throughout Michigan – in Grand Rapids'
Civic, Circle, and Actors Theaters, and Novi and Ann Arbor Civic Theaters.
She has also appeared on Detroit's Boxfest and Second City stages.
Favorite productions include Annie,
Sweeney Todd, The Producers, Anne of Green Gables, Baby, and Divine Stella Divine. Her favorite
roles so far are "Stella" in Follies,
and rich "Lady Cucuface" in Madeline.
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