OLD Whidbey Life Magazine

Tag: Outcast Productions

New York, LA and India Converge on South Whidbey on Sept. 17 and 18

BY DAVID MAYER
Whidbey Life Magazine Guest Contributor
September 7, 2016

An award-winning comedy will get a new musical treatment at Outcast Productions in Langley on Sept. 17 and 18.

The production company, along with a renowned writer and a New York City-based creative team, are out to give South Whidbey something to remember. Langley’s own black box theater company will offer a fully costumed multi-media musical extravaganza with a re-envisioning of Edward Jordan’s love romp—the film “Bollywood and Vine.”

While scripts will be in hand, the production team is pulling out all the stops (including a parrot puppet!) to give its audience the complete musical treatment. Outcast promotes the piece as “Sunset Boulevard meets La Cage aux Folles.” As with “La Cage,” the comedic trappings are an entry into meaningful stories that the creator felt needed to be told. Jordan said it’s a tale about “ageism, self-acceptance and openness to the possibility of love…’cause it can come when you least expect it.”

According to Outcast, the musical revolves around Hollywood scream queen Delilah Leigh, who hasn’t made a movie in years. However, she’s a superstar to love-struck Bhuvan Bannerji, a newly transplanted Indian who runs a bus tour of movie stars’ homes in Los Angeles. A “wannabe filmmaker,” Bannerji hopes to sweep Leigh off her feet and whisk her back to India’s Tinseltown, ‘Bollywood.’

This is the jumping-off point for a yarn full of twists that get at our assumptions about age, race, sex and gender.

As a youngster, Jordan was fascinated by the photos his father brought back from years spent in India. Those memories made their way into his 2004 film comedy, “Bollywood and Vine.” Its take on several “-isms” garnered the 2005 WorldFest Silver Award in the Romance category for Independent Theatrical Films and Videos.

Jordan wished to see where else he could take these characters and story. And when lyricist June Rachelson-Ospa and her musical collaborator, composer Daniel Neiden, got a look at Jordan’s proposed transformation of the film, they quickly found possibilities for the excited author. While happy to work in many genres, Jordan quipped, “I recently had my DNA checked. Turns out I’m 75% musical comedy.”

In revisiting the comedic plot for a musical take, the trio decided to clarify whose story this was. Adoring the bigger-than-life screen actresses of Hollywood’s Golden Age (think Bette Davis and Gloria Swanson), and despising what he saw as a modern dismissal of their work, Jordan found what he needed in Delilah—”a vital, talented, intelligent actress of a certain age, set adrift on an iceberg by Hollywood.” He would put that theme in focus.

After a successful reading in New York, the Long Island native returned to his new Whidbey home, seeking just the right Delilah for his next staging. Inspiration arrived when he saw K. Sandy O’Brien’s turn as Tallulah Bankhead in Outcast’s recent production of “Looped.” Jordan contacted Ned Farley, O’Brien’s Outcast co-founder, who immediately saw a fit.

Though essentially Delilah’s story, “Bollywood and Vine” has something to say about LGBTQ issues, as characters mask their identities in order to find love. And, as evidenced by the title, there is a multi-national flavor to which Farley and Jordan wished to remain true. Yet striving for racial diversity in a small town can require extra effort.

“While we’re pleased that we’ve been able to reflect diversity in some of our work,” Farley said, citing Outcast’s “Ain’t Misbehavin’” as the first all-Black production at a theater on Whidbey, “it’s an on-going challenge for us.” Recently, the company’s “The Flick” featured a character who is Asian-American and the company found its actor on the mainland.

“Creativity and casting from off-island are [again] going to be necessary,” Farley said.

In a hopefully precedent-setting conjunction, some of the New York-based cast from the original read will join local performers for this presentation. While being introduced to actors Levin Valayil, D.J. Bucciarelli, and Jaz Zepatos, audiences will recognize the local talents of O’Brien, Farley, Jennifer Bondelid, Gabe Harschman and long-time favorite, Gail Liston. Liston, perhaps known more for non-musical stage work—her Barbara in “August: Osage County” was necessary viewing—also enjoys the passion of musicals. She relishes, she said, “the way a scene builds in intensity until it’s necessary for the characters to burst into song.”

While the reading is directed by composer Neiden, Music Arranger/Orchestrator Charles Czarnecki (who has conducted on Broadway) will be consulting with Eileen Soskin, another accomplished South Whidbey transplant from New York who has signed on to handle musical direction. A person of most humble charm, she is a masterful pianist who was a professor and associate dean at Baltimore’s vaunted Peabody Institute and now directs and accompanies local talent. “She really helped me,” Liston said, “not only with the music, but to make choices and define my character.”

September’s production further prepares the work for a reading before several Broadway bigwigs. But Jordan is not leaving Whidbey behind. “We’re even discussing a full, full production at Outcast with a longer run,” he said. “Ned Farley has pretty much taken me—and “Bollywood”—under his wing. Then, offering appreciation with the wink of a comedic writer, he added, “I’m in really good wings.”

“Bollywood and Vine” plays at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 17 and 4 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 18 in Outcast’s Black Box Theater at the Fairgrounds in downtown Langley. See OutcastProductions.net for ticket information and a synopsis of the story.

Image at top: D.J. Bucciarelli (left) and Levin Valayil (right) rehearse a scene from the Actors Equity reading of “Bollywood And Vine” at the Lion Theater, NYC.

David Mayer is an actor, playwright and director who trained in Seattle but found a home in Langley’s welcoming friends and artistry. He works in the tech world, but probably can’t fix your computer.

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July 7, 2016
Acting and the Art of Construction: Jim Scullin

BY KATIE WOODZICK
Whidbey Life Magazine Contributor
July 8, 2015

Little did Jim Scullin know, when he came to Whidbey Island, that he would act in dozens of plays and become a fixture of the South Whidbey community.

He and his family moved to Whidbey Island in 1992. They had visited the island before to see his wife Gay’s family.

“I was drawn to the silence and the stillness of this place,” Scullin said.

He had long built interiors for homes, specializing in cabinets and finished carpentry. It was a natural shift for him to help build the sets for the plays in which his son Michael participated at Whidbey Children’s Theater.

Scullin saw how much fun Michael was having and decided he wanted to try acting himself.

Jim Scullin as Michael Rowan, Laura Persaud as Morning Star in “The Kentucky Cycle” at WICA April 2009 (photo courtesy of WICA, by Tyler Raymond)

Martha Murphy, founder of Whidbey Children’s Theater, spoke fondly of helping Scullin make the transition from “behind the scenes” to onstage.

“He built sturdy set pieces that offered versatility and ease of handling and he always offered his help with a big smile!” she said. “I cast him alongside his son, Michael, for a cameo in the musical, “Huckleberry Finn,” on stage at the Clyde Theater. He was a stand out and the rest is history!”

In the mid-nineties, Scullin saw an audition notice for Martha Fury’s play “An Evening at the Crossroads.” Being of Irish heritage, he wanted to be part of the production.

“That really excited me. It was important to me because of my Irish roots,” he recalled. “I dared myself to audition and I got a role.”

Scullin as Michael in “God of Carnage” at WICA October 2011 (photo courtesy of WICA, by Tyler Raymond)

He experienced a ripple effect of being in that show. People saw him in “An Evening at the Crossroads” and started asking him to participate in other productions, such as “The Miracle Worker” and “The Diary of Anne Frank,” for which he also built the set.

Tom Harris cast Scullin as part of a small ensemble cast in “Accomplice,” that played at WICA in 2004.

“If ever there was a breakout role, that was it,” Scullin said. “People would come up to me and say ‘I didn’t know you had that in you. You’re such a quiet guy.’”

Scullin has continued to act, both to entertain himself and because he enjoys collaborating with other community members.

“For me, acting is an exercise in being in the present…I like working with people on a shared challenge.”

Scullin pairs his love of collaboration and his carpentry skills to work for Hearts and Hammers. He has worked with the organization for over 15 years, recently serving as the board president. Similar to the community building of theatre, he enjoys that Hearts and Hammers helps people locally.

“We’re so effective at achieving our goals,” he said proudly. “There’s no end to the good.”

Scullin also used his flair for performing when he competed in the Mr. South Whidbey Competition; he imitated a horse race announcer’s voice to call the different stages of a person’s life. He found the text in the magazine “The Sun” and looks forward to reprising the performance at the 10-year anniversary of the competition later this year.

Scullin as Frost, Ken Church as Nixon in “Frost/Nixon” at WICA June 2012 (photo courtesy of WICA, by Tyler Raymond)

In 2012, Scullin took on the iconic role of David Frost in the play “Frost/Nixon,” directed by local filmmaker and playwright Richard Evans. He had worked with Evans previously on three of his films shot on Whidbey Island: “Harry Monument,” “Shadow of Rain” and “Shuffle and Cut,” as well as his play called “Club Dead,” produced at the Clyde.

“More than anything, I love the rehearsal process,” Scullin explained. “I love discovering the chemistry with other actors and discovering the character. The process is so life-affirming.”

Scullin is currently working on the role of Ariel in the Pulitzer Prize-nominated dark comedy, “The Pillowman,” written by Martin McDonagh at OutCast Productions. When he first read the play, he wasn’t sure that he had it him to play the role. Ultimately, he decided to take on the challenge.

“My character is so subtly complex,” he said. “What you finally learn about this guy is that he’s endless. If I do my job well, I will allow people to accompany Ariel on this nightmare.”

Scullin as Ariel in “The Pillowman” currently at the Black Box Theater in Langley (photo by Andrew Grenier)

Scullin is grateful to his family for being so supportive of this avocation he has found later in life. He usually participates in one or two plays a year. The rehearsal process for a show can go on for six to eight weeks, which means he’s rarely home during that time. Luckily, he says that he and his wife both have their pursuits about which they’re passionate.

“My wife Gay and I have an agreement,” he chuckled. “She’s an enthusiastic baseball fan—she’s had season tickets for 25 years. During baseball season, she’s gone, and during theatre season, I’m gone.”

“The Pillowman” runs July 10-25 at the Island Fairgrounds Black Box Theater located at 819 Camano Avenue. Visit www.outcastproductions.net for more information. Tickets can be purchased online at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/wlm/1726326 or reserved by emailing ocp@whidbey.com.

Featured photo at the top: Jim Scullin in Our Town, WICA June 2014 (photo courtesy of WICA, by Tyler Raymond)

Katie Woodzick works at Hedgebrook as an External Relations Manager. She is also an actor and director who can be seen on local stages, and she is the host of the Theatrical Mustang podcast: theatricalmustang.podbean.com. She is currently directing “The Pillowman” with OutCast Productions.

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WLM stories and blogs are copyrighted and all rights are reserved. Linking is permitted. To request permission to use or reprint content from this site, email info@whidbeylifemagazine.org.

July 8, 2015
Sex and electricity — ‘In the Next Room (or the Vibrator Play)’ continues at OutCast

May 6, 2015

Victorian New England comes to life in Sarah Ruhl’s play “In the Next Room (or The Vibrator Play)” at OutCast Productions at the Black Box Theater in Langley.

“In the Next Room” is a great script by an exciting modern American playwright; so don’t miss it. It all takes place in the dawn of the age of electricity, and after the Civil War; circa 1880s. The play focuses on the revelations sparked by the female orgasm.

Katie Woodzick and Michael Morgen rehearse a scene from “In the Next Room” at OutCast Productions. (photos by Doug Kolb)

Sabrina Daldry and Catherine Givings are sexually frustrated with their husbands, who creep quietly into their beds at night and only use the missionary position, which they endure, but do not enjoy. Both are excited to have their first orgasms with the machine. Mrs. Daldry is content to continue having clinical treatments with the machine and suffer lifeless, boring sex with her own husband. But Catherine Givings wants more.

Mrs. Givings learns from a visiting artist that orgasms detached from love ultimately are unfulfilling and empty, simply surface, without soul. Then a lower-class wet nurse, Elizabeth, reveals to Catherine that she may be able to enjoy the same sensations from the machine with her husband, with whom she is frustrated because of his clinical detachment, but still ultimately loves.

Katie Woodzick, Phil Jordan and Kathryn Lynn Morgen in a scene from Sarah Ruhl’s play, “In the Next Room (or the Vibrator Play)” opens at OutCast Friday, May 8.

Director Ned Farley brings the play to life with cast members Ethan Berkley, Jennifer Bondelid, Phil Jordan, Kathryn Lynn Morgen, Michael Morgen, Hollie Swanson and Katie Woodzick in this hilarious comedy of manners, which was a finalist for the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and was nominated for the 2010 Tony Award for Best Play.

The show opens at 7:30 pm Friday, May 8 at the Whidbey Island Fairgrounds’ Black Box Theater in Langley located at 819 Camano Ave., Langley. Visit outcastproductions.net for more info. Performances continue at 7:30 pm May 9, 15, 16, 21, 22 and 23; and at 2 pm Sunday, May 17.

Tickets are $18 for adults and $14 for students and seniors. Get them at Brown Paper Tickets or reserve seats and pay at the door by cash or check by emailing us at ocp@whidbey.com.

May 6, 2015
OutCast Productions presents ‘Nickel and Dimed’ opening in Langley March 6

March 4,2015

Let’s face the facts: The cycle of poverty in America is shamefully bolstered by corporate managers, who value the market more than the average worker’s well-being.

Peggy Gilmer, Judith Dankanics, Mona Newbauer and Julia Tewksbury portray the low-wage women workers of “Nickel and Dimed” on (not) getting by in America. (photo by Jim Carroll of Shu Images)

Joan Holden’s play “Nickel and Dimed” is based on the sociological non-fiction, bestseller “Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America” by Barbara Ehrenreich, about the author’s undercover odyssey into the world of a low-wage life. OutCast Productions opens the play at 7:30 p.m. Friday, March 6 at the Black Box Theater at the Whidbey Island Fairgrounds in Langley. The show runs through Saturday, March 21.

Can a middle-aged, middle-class woman survive when she suddenly has to make beds all day in a hotel and live on $7 an hour? Maybe. But one $7-an-hour job won’t pay the rent. She’ll have to do back-to-back shifts, as a chambermaid and a waitress. Ehrenreich’s book about her discoveries in the hardscrabble life of underpaid women in America is vivid and witty, yet always deeply sobering, and Holden’s script brings that sobering reality to life.

Julia Tewksbury as Barbara and Eric Anderson as Phillip rehearse Joan Holden’s play “Nickel and Dimed,” based on the nonfiction bestseller by Barbara Ehrenreich. (photo by Jim Carroll of Shu Images)

Director K. Sandy O’Brien maintains a comic lightness throughout, as the middle-aged Barbara stumbles around the country from one hard-knock job to another. Meanwhile, what is finally illuminated is the ultimate conclusion of Ehrenreich’s study: There is a dark shadow of oppression that continues to weigh heavily on the low-wage workforce of America.

The cast includes Eric Andersen, Sean Brennan, Jim Carroll, Judith Dankanics, Patricia Duff, Peggy Gilmer, Doug Kolb, Hannah Mack, Mona Newbauer and Julia Tewksbury (as Barbara).

Performances are at 7:30 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, March 6 to 21; at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 19; and at 2 p.m. Sunday, March 15. Doors open one half hour before show time.

Tickets are $18 for adults and $14 for student/seniors.

Tickets are available via Brown Paper Tickets here. You can also reserve tickets and pay at the door by cash or check by emailing us at ocp@whidbey.com.

The Black Box Theater is located at 819 Camano Ave. in Langley. Find out more at www.outcastproductions.net.

March 4, 2015
Season tickets on sale for OutCast Productions, 2015
Jan. 13, 2015

Season tickets are on sale for OutCast Productions 2015 theater season. Get them at Brown Paper Tickets.

The season kicks off with “Nickel and Dimed” by Joan Holden, based on the non-fiction book “Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America” by Barbara Ehrenreich. The show will be directed by K. Sandy O’Brien and opens March 6. Here’s a break-down of the entire season which runs from March to October.
- March 6 to 21, “Nickel and Dimed” by Joan Holden, based on the non-fiction book “Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America” by Barbara Ehrenreich, and directed by K. Sandy O’Brien.
Can a middle-aged, middle-class woman survive when she suddenly has to make beds all day in a hotel and live on $7 an hour? Maybe.

But one $7-an-hour job won’t pay the rent: she’ll have to do back-to-back shifts, as a chambermaid and a waitress. This isn’t the first surprise for acclaimed author Barbara, who set out to research low-wage life firsthand, confident she was prepared for the worst.

Barbara Ehrenreich’s best-seller about her odyssey is vivid and witty, yet always deeply sobering. Joan Holden’s stage adaptation is a focused, comic epic shadowed with tragedy.

Barbara is prepared for hard work but not, at 55, for double shifts and nonstop aches and pains; for having to share tiny rooms, live on fast food because she has no place to cook, beg from food pantries, gulp handfuls of Ibuprofen because she can’t afford a doctor; for failing, after all that, to make ends meet; or for constantly having to swallow humiliation.
- May 8 to 23, “In the Next Room, or the Vibrator Play” by Sarah Ruhl, directed by Ned Farley.
In a seemingly perfect, well-to-do Victorian home, proper gentleman and scientist Dr. Givings has innocently invented an extraordinary new device for treating “hysteria” in women (and occasionally men): the vibrator.

Adjacent to the doctor’s laboratory, his young and energetic wife tries to tend to their newborn daughter—and wonders exactly what is going on in the next room. When a new “hysterical” patient and her husband bring a wet nurse and their own complicated relationship into the doctor’s home, Dr. and Mrs. Givings must examine the nature of their own marriage, and what it truly means to love someone.
- July 10 to 25, “The Pillowman” by Martin McDonagh; directed by Katie Woodzick.
With echoes of Stoppard, Kafka and the Brothers Grimm, “The Pillowman” centers on a writer in an unnamed totalitarian state who is being interrogated about the gruesome content of his short stories and their similarities to a series of child murders. The result is an urgent work of theatrical bravura and an unflinching examination of the very nature and purpose of art.
- Sept. 18 to Oct. 3, “Looped” by Matthew Lombardo – in the Northwest premiere and directed by Sean Brennan.
“Looped” tells the story of internationally celebrated actress Tallulah Bankhead as she is called into a sound studio in 1965 to re-record (or “loop”) one line of dialogue for what would be her last film, the dreadful “Die, Die My Darling.” Southern, but by no means a belle, Bankhead was known for her wild partying and convention-defying exploits that outshone even today’s celebrity bad girls. Given her inebriated state (and inability to loop the line perfectly), what ensues is a hilarious showdown between an uptight and conservative sound editor, Danny Miller, and the outrageous star.

OutCast performs all its shows at the Whidbey Island Fairgrounds’ Black Box Theater, 819 Camano Ave. in Langley For more information about OutCast and its upcoming season, visit www.outcastproductions.net.
January 13, 2015
‘Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me’ opens Friday, Sept. 19 at OutCast’s Black Box Theater in Langley

Sept. 15, 2014

OutCast Productions delves into a play that couldn’t be more relevant to our time.

“Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me” opens Friday, Sept. 19 at the Whidbey Island Fairgrounds.

Considering the recent news headlines of the heinous cavalier beheadings of American reporters, James Foley and Steven Sotloff, by the Islamic State of Iraq (ISIS) and their countless other victims, it seems as if the play might have been written last week.

The play, written by award-winning Irish playwright Frank McGuinness, is inspired somewhat by the traumatic experience of Brian Keenan, who was captured in Beirut in 1986, along with John McCarthy and Terry Anderson, and held hostage for four years. It was first performed at the Hampstead Theatre, London in 1992, but as terrorism and hostage-taking seem to be regular occurrences in a world still ripe with psychopaths posing under symbol of god and country, the play is as prescient as it was 22 years ago.

Director K. Sandy O’Brien had been poised to direct the play years ago, but missed that chance, so she’s had plenty of time to think about it.

“The three characters of this story had always intrigued me,” O’Brien said. “To think this play is only about a hostage situation doesn’t do it justice. It does make you wonder if you put any three people in a room, could they work out their differences and survive if their captors let them.”

Jim Carroll, Tim O’Brien and Brian Plebanek in Frank McGuiness’ “Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me” (photo by Doug Kolb)

When the play was first produced, McGuinness spoke of an image of “three men chained to the wall, talking” and also about his obsession with the ongoing hostile relationship between England and Ireland. The play reveals all these kinds of wounds, while working toward an admittance of them, followed by a healing.

“Our finest human nature is what this play is about and the ability to rise above when put to the task,” O’Brien added.

“With different backgrounds and histories… can we be united? In this play we can. If only our captors would enter the room and join us there would be no play to be written.”

The cast includes Jim Carroll, Brian Plebanek and Tim O’Brien. Lighting is by Alex Wren, set construction by Lars Larson, sound and light techs are Ned Farley and Doug Kolb.

The play shows at 7:30 p.m. on Sept. 19, 20, 26, 27 and Oct. 2, 3, 4 and at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 28. OutCast performs at the Black Box Theater, which is located at the Whidbey Island Fairgrounds at 819 Camano Ave. in Langley.

Tickets are on sale at Brown Paper Tickets or can be reserved by emailing OutCast at ocp@whidbey.com and paid for at the door by cash or check. Tickets cost is $18 for adults and $14 for students and seniors.

Visit the OutCast website for more information about this play and the upcoming 2015 season at www.outcastproductions.net.

Pictured at top: Tim O’Brien, Jim Carroll and Brian Plebanek in rehearsal for OutCast’s upcoming show, “Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me” (photo by Doug Kolb)

September 16, 2014
Duff ’n Stuff | Glorious artists, gratifying process

BY PATRICIA DUFF
March 14, 2014

Lately I’ve been charged with paying close attention to the work of other artists. I work part-time these days at Rob Schouten Gallery at Greenbank Farm where I spend time talking to patrons about 30 or so fine artists whose works and processes I’ve come to know fairly well. It’s a happy job, selling art. It’s kind of like selling the best spirit of someone else, selling a product that brings joy and beauty into the lives of others. It’s a positive pursuit, and when I sell a piece of art I feel somewhat as if I’ve done a good deed for the day—something that adds to making the world a better place. I know, kind of schmaltzy, but true for me.

I also continue to write part-time about artists. Currently I am writing a story for the first print edition of WLM about a handful of young artists who grew up on Whidbey Island, all extremely talented and each an inspiration to me as I follow the trajectory of their artistic careers. When I write about artists, I absorb a bit of vicarious satisfaction from knowing that here is still a segment of the population that will go out into the world with music, art, entertainment─all those things that come back to beauty and truth, things that add alacrity and grace to the world. Don’t worry, I tell myself as I turn away from yet another disconcerting story in the news, here are more of the saviors coming up in the world, those who will push back against a culture somewhat overwhelmed by technology, climate-change, poverty, wars and extinction. Here are the positive ones, the “interestings,” the non-cubicled, the beauty-makers. I thank my lucky stars every day for them and those like them.

All this focus on other artists makes me pine for the days when my life was focused on a purely artistic career. I spent about 12 years after college seriously pursuing a life as a working actor. I miss the days of marginal living, when memorizing scripts, rehearsing late into the evening and pounding the pavement for that next part were the focus of my youthful self. Although I must admit, my memory is selective and romantic, and if I force myself to remember the whole picture, much of it was drudgery. Eventually, I realized I couldn’t hack such a life and I went back to school for writing. But the memory of the pleasure of being preoccupied by a pure artistic pursuit remains.

Becky Ann Baker, Frances McDormand and Estelle Parsons played the leading roles in the Manhattan Theatre Club’s 2011 production of “Good People.” / Photo from www.thelmagazine.com

I’m happy to bring back some of that happy countenance when I plunge myself into a play at a local community theater, as I do now with a part in David Lindsay-Abaire’s “Good People” for OutCast Productions in Langley. I often tell my friends that I’m happiest when I’m creating something; acting is my anti-depressant of sorts and I’m grateful to playwrights who give women such juicy parts. I play Margie Walsh, a blue-collar, middle-aged woman who has lived all her life in South Boston, and who has lost yet another job and now faces eviction. There’s more to it than that, but for now my main goal is to memorize, get the dialect right and think about how a woman who has spent her entire life trying to stay one step ahead of debt collectors would walk, sit, laugh, stave off misery and endure. Oh joy, oh process!

Hopefully I will add my own bit of positive artistic something to the world as do those I admire most.

(“Good People” opens May 9 at the Black Box Theater at the fairgrounds. Visit www.outcastproductions.net for more info.)

Patricia Duff is a freelance writer and journalist, seller of art and sometime actor.

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March 14, 2014
Comedy anyone? — “Play On!” is at OutCast in Langley

Sept. 18, 2013

OutCast Productions presents “Play On!” through Oct. 5 at the Black Box Theater in Langley, directed by K. Sandy O’Brien.

O’Brien lends her mad directing skills to Rick Abbot’s behind-the-scenes comedy. Abbot emulates the great, door-slamming plays of high-low comedy (think “Noises Off”) and literally lifts the curtain and lays bare the hilarious inner workings of the ‘Last Chance Players.’ Here is the hilarious story of a theater group trying desperately to put on a play in spite of maddening interference from a haughty author who keeps revising the script.

Lars Larson and Marta Mulholland get into some serious hijinks in OutCast’s “Play On!” opening Friday, Sept. 20 through Oct. 5 at the Whidbey Island Fairgrounds Black Box Theater in Langley. (Doug Kolb photos)

Act I is a rehearsal of the dreadful show, Act II is the near disastrous dress rehearsal, and the final act is the actual performance in which anything that can go wrong does. When the author decides to give a speech on the state of the modern theater during the curtain calls, the audience is treated to a madcap climax to a thoroughly hilarious romp. Even the sound effects reap their own share of laughter.

The cast includes Lars Larson, Marta Mulholland, Rita Carrow, Warren Carrow, Rich Tamler, Ned Farley, Jim Carroll, Mona Newbauer, Judith Dankanics and Tony Caldwell.

Performances are at 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; and 2 p.m. Sundays; through Saturday, Oct. 5.

Tickets are $12 student/senior (62+) and $16 adults. Tickets are on sale either through Brown Paper Tickets for credit card purchases, or by reserving tickets through our email address to be picked up and paid for at the door by cash or check at: ocp@whidbey.com.

The Black Box Theater is located at the Whidbey Island Fairgrounds, 819 Camano Ave. in Langley.

Visit OutCast Productions’ website for more info.

(Pictured at top, Mona Newbauer, Rita Carrow, Judith Dankanics and Marta Mulholland in “Play On!” at OutCast./Doug Kolb photo)

September 24, 2013