Play On! Third Street Players open WCT season

Published 2:00 pm Saturday, October 6, 2007

Whidbey Children’s Theater opens the season with a play in which everything will go very wrong.

And it should be very funny to watch.

This is not the unsympathetic sneer of a malcontent but the bated breath anticipation of seeing “Play On!” as presented by WCT’s teen ensemble, the Third Street Players. The players are directed by K. Sandy O’Brien.

This play-within-a-play focuses on the hilarious story of a theater group trying desperately to put on a play called “Murder Most Foul” in spite of some maddening interference from the haughty playwright who keeps revising the script.

Act I is a rehearsal of the dreadful show. Act II is the verging-on-disastrous dress rehearsal and the final act is the actual performance in which anything that can go wrong does.

When the demanding authoress, played by Allie Firth, decides to give a speech on the state of the modern theater during the curtain call, the audience is treated to a madcap climax with an action-packed romp to the end. Even the sound effects reap their share of laughter.

O’Brien has directed the play before and said that the piece is fun to recreate because it’s vastly different each time it’s produced.

And directing this talented group of young people is often full of surprises.

“Directing a group of teenagers can be like trying to herd cats,” O’Brien said.

“Of course, on the flip side is that this little group brings pure joy to every rehearsal and has the ability to process information faster than the speed of sound. Sometimes I’m left in the middle of the room wondering what has just happened.”

Mark Arand plays Jerry “the director.” He said the language of the play is what provides the most challenges for him and probably the most fun for the audience.

“There are lines repeated all through the play which are slightly different each time,” Arand said.

This is what gives the piece its “play-on-words” quality and provides the set-up for the audience which leads to amusing pay-offs at the end of the play.

Arand and Firth explained that the various characters of the play all have very broad and distinct personalities that give the cast the opportunity to play on personalities inherent in the real local theater community.

“We’ve had a lot of fun making fun of our real-life experiences in the theater,” Arand said.

“Like, ‘I’ll go call Deana,’” Firth said, explaining that WICA’s production director, Deana Duncan, is the go-to-gal for practically everybody and anybody who is in production in the South End theater community. Duncan often comes to the rescue of many.

“And the ‘pin-drop’ exercise that Martha Murphy taught us when we were little,” Arand said, referring to Murphy’s trick to quiet down very young actors.

“When she wanted us to be as quiet as if you could hear a pin drop.”

Under the guidance of O’Brien, the Third Street Players are getting an education on how to play comedy, which is often much more difficult to do than tragedy. The play requires an intense study in scene rhythms and beats, and how action changes from moment to moment.

“Since our actors are playing actors in a play, this jumping back and forth is a skill worth writing on a resume,” O’Brien said.

“Realizing how much we are like this show and how it’s funny because it’s true, has helped us,” Firth said. “We look at it, recognize it and then apply it.”

With all its parallels to producing community theater at WCT, “Play On!” seems the perfect vehicle for the Third Street Players. Many were virtually raised on a diet of South End theater.

“Since we have a lovely community that supports theater and a number of individuals who write for the theater, this is a piece that embraces, with tongue-in-cheek, the personalities and quirks of its own little theatrical world,” O’Brien said.

“It is very possible that many of our theater-goers will find a little of themselves within the production and perhaps feel the need to take a curtain call with us,” she added.

“Please, stand up and be recognized!”

This play has a bit of mature content in language. Parents of young children may want to check with the box office for details.

“Play On!” opens at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 11, and will be presented at 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays, through Oct. 21.

Tickets are $14 for adults and $10 for students and seniors. Call 221-2282 for tickets and info.

Patricia Duff can be reached at 221-5300 or pduff@southwhidbeyrecord.com.