C'mon down this weekend to Indio High School's first drama production of the year.

Indio High School's Circle Theatre Acting Company is performing “The Dearly Departed,” a play about a dysfunctional Southern family.

The comedy follows the Turpin family as it makes arrangements to bury its patriarch, Bud Turpin, said Gail Douglass, director and Indio High School theater teacher.

“Even the most dysfunctional families love each other and get through the hard times,” she said.

The play features juniors and seniors in the honors drama class, Douglass said.

Diego Valdez, 17, who plays Bud's oldest son, Ray-Bud, said that maintaining his Southern accent is the most challenging part of the play.

“There are just times when I am trying to say something and I go back to my regular Californian accent,” he said.

To prepare for the play, Valdez said his class watched clips from Southern-themed movies such as “Sordid Lives.”

The class has been rehearsing the play for two months, Valdez said.

“There are still times that we crack up,” he said. “It's a real funny play.”

Bud Turpin's entire clan gets involved in the struggle to bury its beloved patriarch, Douglass said.

Ray-Bud gets more frustrated when things don't go his way, Valdez said. He also gets in a fistfight with his younger brother.

But it's the not-so-grieving widow, Raynelle Turpin, played by Alejandra Casillas, 17, that keeps the family together through the tough times.

Casillas said her character is much more realistic about the relationship that she has had with her husband and is grateful for the children that she has.

Casillas also agreed that the accent is pretty tough to master.

“You get caught up in the parts of remembering the lines — that the accent is second,” she said.