New South Whidbey play explores a modern crusade

Published 10:00 am Wednesday, June 6, 2001

“Tom Fisher (right) gives a flower to Mary McLeod under the watchful eye of Logan McInerney and Amy Walker as the four rehearse for the musical Cathy’s Creek.Matt Johnson / staff photosSee the playCathy’s Creek, a family musicalWhidbey Island Center for the Arts, LangleyJune 8, 9, 10, 15 and 16, 7:30 p.m.; June 17, 2 p.m. matineePost-show reception Friday, June 8 hosted by Chef Paul Divina of the Star BistroKiwanis Barbecue, Saturday, June 16, 5 p.m.Ticket prices are $12 adults, $10 seniors, $8 ages 18 and under, matinee $8 all seats. Call 221-8268 or e-mail wica@whidbey.com.On a theater stage that recreates a sunlit corner of an Iowan farm, a young girl comes often to a stream that flows under the green canopy of a spreading orchard tree.The girl is Cathy, and this is her creek. It’s also where the young heroine of Cathy’s Creek finds the courage to go against the odds and conduct a lone crusade against those who have polluted the waters of her creek. It’s where her journey begins, and where she learns the lessons of life and glimpses the approach of adulthood. In Cathy’s Creek, a family play that has humor, drama, music, and a message for the Earth, island actors involve their audience in a tale that blends coming of age with imagination and environmental activism. The play also brings to life (visibly) a young man who has died, and the martyred figure of Joan of Arc.Written by Elise Forier, directed by Amy Windecker and with music by Tina Lear, the Community Theater presentation of Cathy’s Creek will be on the stage at the Whidbey Island Center of the Arts beginning this Friday.Playwright Forier says she embarked upon the storyline of Cathy’s Creek having an underlying fascination with the story of Joan of Arc. In college I majored in medieval British history, from Charlemagne and King Alfred to the Renaissance, Forier explained. The stories from that period are wonderful. And Joan of Arc — you can’t beat that story. On the one hand you have England and France engaged in a war for 100 years, and the French are losing. Then this peasant girl, someone who is no one, convinces the French prince to let her lead his troops, because voices told her to. It reads like the best novel you’ve ever read. Joan was brave and sassy and had such spirit.It’s that spirit that informs the character of Cathy, Forier said.The young girl becomes aware that a factory farm raising chickens and hogs is disposing of its animal waste by dumping it onto the ground. Her discovery leads to a mission: Stop the pollution of groundwater before more sickness — even death — is the result.Helping her in this crusade are two people: Cathy’s brother, who died early and mysteriously, and the heroic figure Joan of Arc. Like Joan, Cathy hears voices urging her to take up the fight.Cathy is an imaginative young woman who believes she can hear and speak to Joan of Arc, said Forier. She is called upon to do something heroic, and she must find the hero in herself.Joan of Arc and Cathy’s dead brother actually appear on stage. These two (real or imagined) give Cathy vital information in her fight, and encourage her to press on with her campaign, despite the opposition and mistrust in those around her.The message to young people, Forier said, is that they must realize that their potential is limitless.The play says: ‘Just listen to your heart and do your best,’ Forier said.It’s not easy. Things don’t always come out the way you thought they would.Life is not always fun.Musical director Tina Lear described Cathy’s journey as coming into courage and developing personal power in the context of the environmental fight.She’s 15, handling life, when she hears voices and gets information to pass on to unhearing ears, director Windecker added. She’s following the path of Joan of Arc.Cathy’s Creek is not, however, without its moments of humor, a delight in life and a musical adventure.Forier called her collaboration with songwriter Lear the most miraculous thing. The two have done this before, with last year’s WICA play, Out of the Box. Theater is a collaborative process, Forier said. And it’s only one percent of the time you get hooked up with somebody in a creative relationship.Lear, Forier said, always knows what she as the playwright wants to say. I indicate in the script where a song should go, and whatever she writes is somehow always exactly what I wanted.As for Lear, the music evolved as she read the play and discovered each actor.Each character has a certain persona, and so a certain music, Lear said. It’s as if I can ‘channel’ the actor, feel what the song should be, then just play around until it comes.Windecker, in her directorial debut with a full-length play, faced a separate set of challenges, including how to bring people to their highest acting level.It’s fascinating., she said. People are coming from many different directions and all levels of experience and interest. But it’s not a battle.With a degree in acting and a wealth of theater experience, Windecker still needed to view the play from the other side of the footlights, she said.I see people on the stage with a separate landscape, as a whole picture, she said. The casting itself was intense, Windecker said. The trick is to cast people who look right, sound right, and fit together. It’s like putting a puzzle together.The intergenerational cast ranges from age 11 to about 50, all but one of them from Whidbey. And in a set that has a spreading tree as a focal point, the characters can also be seen as trees, Lear said. They are solid, important characters, each individual surrounded by a web of support. Just like the play: The cast, script, and the music all finding themselves, culminating in a whole picture. The set for Cathy’s Creek is an unusual one for a theater: A large, leafy green tree growing by a creek of real running water.The artistic staff and support system was extraordinary, Forier said. Can you believe — THE Dave Gignac, Beno Kennedy — working on this play, which was written expressly for Whidbey Island audiences. I feel remarkably blessed. WICA’s 2000-2001 Theatre Series is sponsored by Todd Bitts/Coldwell Banker Tara Properties and The Star Bistro, and funded in part by the Glaser Foundation, the Allen Foundation for the Arts, and US Bank. “