The Nerd

Thanks to everyone who attended our run at Mount Baker Theatre!

From reviewer Christopher Key:

There is no doubt that The Nerd is funny and there was no doubt that the opening night audience loved it. Director Corey D. McDaniel obviously loves Shue’s work and knows how to handle it: balls to the wall, no holds barred and over the top is not far enough.

The cast gives it their all and then some. The energy they pour into this production would wean the world off fossil fuels if it could be tapped. Frankly, I was exhausted just watching them.

Tansy, is about to realize her dream of becoming a weather girl in the nation’s capital, leaving him in Terre Haute. Rep veteran Jennifer A. Ewing not only looks like a warm front, but is the only character in the play to maintain any shred of dignity.

Christopher Key, IMHO: Performing Arts Reviews from the Northwest, Feb 12 2016

Directed by Corey D. McDaniel

The Nerd ran Fri. Feb 12th, 2016 7:30 PM - Sun. Feb 28th, 2016 3:00 PM at Mount Baker Theatre in Bellingham, WA as part of their MBT Rep program.

From MBT:

One of the funniest plays ever written, this extraordinarily inventive, sidesplitting comedy sees an ex-GI beset by a visitor who outstays his welcome with a vengeance.

Now an aspiring young architect in Indiana, Willum Cubbert has often told his friends about the debt he owes to Rick Steadman, a fellow ex-GI whom he has never met but who saved his life in Vietnam. Having written to his savior and offering to repay him in any way possible, Willum is overjoyed when Rick shows up unexpectedly on the night of his thirty fourth birthday. However, his delight soon fades as it becomes apparent that Rick is a hopeless “nerd”—a bumbling oaf with no social sense, little intelligence, and less tact. As Rick stays on and on, his continued presence among Willum and his friends leads to one uproarious incident after another, until the normally placid Willum finds himself contemplating drastic measures.

“…the audience almost never stops laughing, handkerchiefs wiping away tears of merriment…” –Variety

“…a spring tonic of side-bruising laughter…” – The Milwaukee Tribune

As You Like It

Thanks to everyone who came out to the show!

"Rosalind" in As You Like It

By William Shakespeare

November 6-21, 2015 produced by Ghost Light Theatricals at the Ballard Underground in Seattle, WA

Directed by Emily Harvey

Love, sex and philosophy haunt the forest of Arden where best friends Rosalind and Celia have been banished. After Rosalind meets Orlando in the forest, however, she is caught between a feeling of skepticism and crazy stupid love. As You Like It subverts the traditional rules of romance. Gender roles, nature and politics are confused in a play that reflects on how bewildering yet utterly pleasurable life can be. You will see how, as Jaques puts it, “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.”
“Rosalind is Shakespeare’s most compelling female character,” says director Emily Harvey, “She’s funny, she’s complicated, she’s not quick to jump into a relationship. We also get to see a wonderful female relationship between her and her best friend, Celia. They keep each other grounded, they laugh at each other, they help each other.”
Along with the feminism and the sexy modern romance, As You Like It will feature five songs, expertly played by a live band. These timeless covers, everything from Stevie Wonder to Magnetic Fields to Missy Elliot, will come from the Americana inspired band, played by actors Daniel, Charlie, Heidi and Gabriela with music direction by Tom Wiebe.

Featuring the talents of Jennifer Ewing, Jenifer Ross, Sarah Beason, David Klein, Patrick Daniel Safarti, Patrick Hurlburt, Matthew Gilbert, Rebecca O’Neil, Annie St. John, Charlie Schuster, Gabriela Aleman, Heidi Cheyenne, Rachel Burrington, Ben Symons and Beth Pollack.

PRODUCTION TEAM

Director: Emily Harvey

Asst Director: Danny Herter

Stage Manager: Erin Dorn

Production Manager: Abigail Pishaw

Set Designer: Brandon Estrella

Light Designer: Angelo Domitri

Music Director: Tom Wiebe

Sound Designer: Rob Raas-Bergquist

www.ghostlighttheatricals.org

The Two Noble Kinsmen

Thanks to all who came out this summer to see TNK! We had a successful run bringing free Shakespeare to the masses in beautiful Seattle.

"When a theater troop is focused on working with Shakespeare’s entire canon, it inevitably must dust off such oddities as the little known The Two Noble Kinsmen. Scholars credit the writing of this piece to the team of John Fletcher and Shakespeare and file the work under tragicomedy. The play, based on Chaucer’s The Knight’s Tale, involves two Theban cousins (J. Samuel Cowan, Adam St. John) falling in love with the same Athenian woman (Jennifer Ewing). It is a positive commentary on Seattle and the GreenStage Shakespeare in the Park program that the presentation drew such a good crowd on a sun baked afternoon in Volunteer Park. All were rewarded with a solid, entertaining production..." Alan Sydney, Drama in the Hood

Up next...The Two Noble Kinsmen

Up next:

"Emilia" in The Two Noble Kinsmen

by William Shakespeare and John Fletcher

July 10-August 15, 2015 performing in major public parks in and around Seattle, WA. Full schedule to be announced. Performances evenings and matinees, tickets are by donation and shows are family friendly!

Directed by TPS Gregory Award-Winner Ryan Higgins.

For more information about GreenStage, please visit their website.

The Underpants

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photo credit: Damian Vines Photography

This show has now closed. Thank you to all who supported the production and to those who joined in the fun at the theatre.

Said Christopher Key, local Bellingham blogger/reviewer, about the show,

"Steve Martin is one of our true national treasures. The wild-and-crazy-guy keeps showing us that he is far more than just a comic genius. He writes, he directs, he plays the banjo. In The Underpants, opening this week at Mount Baker Theatre’s Winter Rep, he mentions the unmentionables and it may make you wet them.

The scene is pre-World War I Germany, where men are men and women are furniture. At least until Frau Maske accidentally loses her knickers in public. Suddenly, the cream of German manhood rises to the occasion and they all want to rent the Maske’s spare room. The ensuing madness makes you wonder how they ever won the war. Oh, yeah. They didn’t. Never mind.

Director Teresa Thuman has assembled an ensemble cast that will show you theirs if you show them yours. It’s a sex farce that will warm a chilly winter night without any actual sex. Only Steve Martin could pull off such an oxymoron. He adapted a script by the rather revolutionary German playwright Carl Sternheim and screws Victorian morality to the sticking place.

Jennifer A. Ewing returns to the Rep after a star turn in last year’s The 39 Steps. She plays the repressed housewife with immense dignity. But when the suitors who have witnessed her public embarrassment show up, the repressed housewife becomes something else. Ewing’s transformation into what passes for a wanton in pre-war Germany is a thing of beauty and she’ll make you want to see her panties. And you will. Sort of.

Her husband is portrayed by Christopher C. Cariker, another veteran of the Rep stage. His take on German male-chauvinist-piggery is as authentic as it gets. Herr Maske is, of course, mortified by his wife’s indiscretion and more worried about losing his job as a mid-level bureaucrat than he is about his wife’s dignity. Cariker’s portrayal is full of bluster, among other things.

The first suitor who wants to get into the Maske’s spare room along with Frau Maske’s knickers is Frank Versati. He is a crazed poet who would rather describe her delights at interminable length rather than actually do the deed. Ian Bond is manically perfect in the role as he spouts pseudo-Teutonic philosophy with immense glee and a rather insane gleam in his eye. Freud would approve.

MBT newcomer Pat Kachikis is the next in line to rent the spare room as the supremely neurotic (and hypochondriac) Benjamin Cohen. That’s Cohen with a K. His performance radiates innocence along with the desire to protect his object of affection, Frau M., from the obviously randy Versati. He’s totally Kosher. With a C.

Akilah Williams needs no introduction to local audiences after her performances at MBT Rep and the Bellingham Theatre Guild. She’s her usual brassy and brilliant self as Frau Maske’s upstairs neighbor, Gertrude Deuter. Gertrude lives vicariously through the indiscretions she hopes Frau Maske will commit and does everything in her power to encourage them.

John Parra is a recent transplant from Colorado and has already made a rather large impression on the local theatre scene, despite his supposedly retired status. He is the final applicant to rent the Maske’s spare room and has no idea why Frau Maske’s underpants are of such interest. Parra doesn’t get much stage time, but makes the most of it as a delusional scientist who suffers from Asperger’s Syndrome.

This production is one of those proofs of the synergistic theory that the whole is often greater than the sum of its parts. These superb actors play very well together and you’ll never see underpants in the same way again.

The Underpants plays February 13 through March 1 at the wonderfully intimate Walton Theatre. "

News

The Nerd

As You Like It

The Two Noble Kinsmen

Up next...The Two Noble Kinsmen

The Underpants