The King and I: WICA brings sights and sounds of Siam to Whidbey for the holidays

Published 6:00 am Wednesday, November 30, 2005

If anyone walked into Whidbey Island Center for the Arts in recent weeks, they would have seen something fanciful, colorful, exotic — maybe even a little daring.

Monday night was a prime example.

On stage, tall pillars bordered a monolith-sized set of stairs that rose to be a throne. On it, a young woman sat draped in metallic fabric, crown upon her head and arms in the air. Back on the ground, white-masked dancers moved with Asian flair, and soon a dragon-masked villain was wandering about.

The culture of Siam has arrived on South Whidbey. And with it, so has WICA’s production of “The King and I,” which opens this Friday.

Daring is the fact this production will have more than 50 cast members — 30 of them are children.

Additionally, there will be a chorus of singers, an orchestra of nine musicians, and dozens of crew — not to mention dozens of parents helping herd the kids.

“The King and I” will be one of the largest productions done at WICA, according to Shelley Sharp, the center’s marketing director.

“We are renting a heated tent to make additional dressing room space, which will be parked in our parking lot during the run of the show,” Sharp said. “It has been a true community collaboration in regards to the production team, with many local residents and artisans making masks, painting sets, sewing costumes, etc.”

Director Elizabeth Itaya has chosen to be true to the Broadway musical in many decisions for the production.

After all, she’s been in love with “The King and I” since she was a child.

“The music is so pretty, so lyrical, so heartbreaking,” Itaya said. “And I’m a sucker for an inspirational story.”

Her love for the play’s story, and experience as the owner of the Wellington Day School for 14 years, has given her insight to drive the production’s large cast.

“The story is so engaging to kids and there’s so many emotions that they should be exposed to,” Itaya said. “They’ve been doing so well expressing the sadness, the great happiness and compassion in it all.”

“The King and I”, written by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, centers on the story of Anna Leonowens (Claudia Walker), an English widow who arrives in Bangkok to teach English and Western ideas to the King of Siam’s many wives and children.

Siam, as Thailand was known during the play’s 1860s time frame, is very different from Anna’s world and soon her implementation of Western values clashes with Siam’s old-fashioned customs and traditions.

Even though the King (Gabriel Itaya) begins to praise the ideals of the West, he accepts the gift of a young Burmese slave girl named Tuptim (Jenny Chang). But despite Anna’s frustrations with the King’s attachment to the old ways, his neglect to raise her salary and give her regular days off — she stays.

The king’s children are too enchanting and Anna has too much romanticism and sympathy for Tuptim.

The play is filled with many memorable songs, including “Getting to Know You,” “Hello Young Lovers,” “Shall we Dance,” and the children’s production of “Small House of Uncle Thomas.”

Rodgers created music for the play “The King and I” that musical director Talia Toni Marcus said acts as a wonderful accent to the story.

“There is a cleverness in the words and depth from their simplicity,” Marcus said. “The music adds such vibrancy, color, emotional texture and joy to the story.”

Marcus has quite the historical link to the music of the “King and I.”

At age 11 she received her first professional job — playing “Getting to Know You” on violin with famed performer Jack Benny.

Marcus has been a musician for over 50 years. As a composer she has more than 100 credits composing film, television, theater and dance scores. She’s played with the likes of Van Morrison, Luciano Pavarotti, Kenny G., Carla Bley, the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra and too many more to list.

Her experience came in handy for “The King and I.”

When the score arrived, Marcus had to rewrite much of the music and even redo parts that weren’t there but should have been.

“There was no percussion written, even though you listen to the Broadway recordings and it’s in there,” Marcus said. “Everything was very different and we’re still working things out.”

Conductor Jeff Clark will be the man in charge of overseeing that the production’s music goes smoothly. He will lead the “King and I” orchestra of nine players: two violins, a viola, flute, piano, sax, trumpet, electric piano and drums.

In addition to securing a bevy of talented musicians, Elizabeth Itaya said she was lucky to find her cast.

“There’s some serious Asian power in here,” Itaya said.

Gabriel Itaya, 17, will star as the King.

Itaya grew up performing in Wellington Day School productions before moving on to many lead vocal roles in Whidbey Children’s Theater productions, such as Curley in “Oklahoma,” Jean Valjean in “Les Miserables” and Conrad Birdie in South Whidbey High School’s “Bye Bye Birdie.”

“I’d always known of the play. And the role of the King is definitely one I’ve been aiming for,” Itaya said.

In preparation for the role, Itaya said he took a close look at previous “King and I” performances to gleam character ideas, but that he also studied the real-life king himself.

“I hope to improve on what others were able to do before me,” Itaya said. “I’ve really tried to bring a lot of insight, find out what he was really about, and definitely take a fresh approach.”

Chinese exchange student Jenny Chang will portray Tuptim, the Burmese princess who is given to the king as a gift.

“She has all the virtues a princess should,” Chang said. “But she’s hopeless in a totally different kingdom.”

Bringing the role of Anna Leonowens to life will be vocalist Claudia Walker, who is familiar to many as a member of performance groups Sing!chronicity and Resonance.

“The music in this show is so beautiful,” Walker said. “By now we’d all be sick of the music if it was anything else, but you could never grow tired of these melodies.”

Walker, too, has been in love with the fairy tale storyline of the “King and I” since childhood.

“It’s been a true honor to know this play is based on a true story, and to be able to play a woman who so affected change in a country,” Walker said.

Whether new to the “King and I” or not, Itaya wants to encourage everyone to come out and see the fruits of labor from the cast and crew — many of them too young to be aware of the Yul Brynner King performance, let alone the 1999 release “Anna and the King.”

“Expect something new and not be set in the idea of what it is, but what it can be,” Itaya said.