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Page A—8 — Shelton-Mason County Journal - Thursday, Feb. 10,
Shelton High School students Gvido Meteris and Becca Byykkonen play two
people trying to connect in the romantic comedy “Almost, Maine’.’
staged
at 7 p.m. Friday, and 2:30 and 7 p.m. Saturday in the high school’s
Performing Arts Center. Journal photo Gordon Weeks
)
V Nine short plays about love and loss
By Gordon Weeks
gordon@masoncounty. com
The pandemic prevented
the staging of a student play
last year in Shelton High
School’s Performing Arts
Center. '
But'after class these days,
the theater is abuzz with stu-
dents adjusting lights, moving
props and preparing to launch
into rehearsals for the roman-
tic comedy “Almost, Maine,”
which debuts at 7 p.m. Friday.
“Project!” acting teacher
and director Wendy Burr calls
to the 17 masked actors on
‘ stage warming up their voic~
es. “To be or not to be!”
“To be or not to bell” they
bellow back.
“Luke, I am your father!”
“Luke, I am your father!!”
“Almost, Maine” is staged
at 7 p.m. Friday, and 2:30
and 7 p.m. Saturday in the
theater. Face masks are re—
quired, and patrons will be
seated for distancing. Admis-
sion is a suggested donation of
$5 for kids and $10 for adults.
“Almost, Maine” was writ-
ten by John Cariani and
premiered in 2004 at the
Portland Stage Company in
Portland, Maine. The nine
vignettes in the play explore
love and sometimes heart-
break in a mythical town of
Almost, Maine. '
Burr, the show’s artistic
and technical director, saw
the show. in college when a
friend directed it.
“I really liked the modern
lightness of it,” Burr said. She
added, “It looks at love almost
like caricature.” ‘
Every scene shows cou—
ples and trios grappling with
feelings, all under the stars of
the northern lights. The script
calls for kissing, which had to
be eliminated for mask-wear-
ing students in a time of pan-
demic, Burr said.
“We have to find other ways
to imply intimacy,” she said.
The audience “should ex-
pect to have a magical time.”
Because there was no show
last year, lots of kids showed
up to participate on and off
stage, Burr said.
“It’s a transition back to
normalcy,” she said.
The student actors are Gvi-
do Meteris, Becca Byykkonen,
Hunter Middleton, Tati Reed,
Milo McKay, Madi Nelsen,
Charlotte Hansen, Tillie Mai-
‘er, SioNuxoll, Phoenix Miller,
Cody Reed, Izzy Sukolsky,
Cinder Nuxoll, Chloe Peter-
son, Ashley Gooding, Maddie
Allred, Li Valenzuela, Cris-
tina Elguero—Mateo, Lizzie
Chapman and Logan Vogel.
Shelton High School
alumni Daisy Johns and Gage
Cress are the assistant tech-‘
nical directors, and/ alum-
nus Joseph Stritzel is the as-
sistant director. Katie Peck
is the stage manager, Max
Gill the set designer and Leo
Reynolds the .costume de-
signer. Marissa Betts runs
the lightboard, Maisie Todd
the soundboard, and Han—
nah Pratt oversees the video
production.
Burr grew up in Marico-
pa, California, a small town
Journal photos by Gordon Weeks
outside Yosemite. She spent
about a decade in Santa Cruz,
first as a student at the Uni-
versity of California at Santa,
Cruz, then a teacher.
Burr moved to the Port—
land area and couldn’t find a '
job teaching, so she managed
a hardware store for a year
until she thought, “What am
I doing with my life?”
She was hired in 2019 to
“reinvent,” she said, the the—
ater program at Shelton High
School. She staged one play
just before the pandemic, a
night of one acts.
The Performing Arts Cen-
ter “is amazing,” Burr said. ‘
“It’s about three times as large
as the theater I had in high
school. It’s like a professional
Left, Cody Reed and Phoenix Miller play a couple grappling over returning
love on “Almost, Maine.” Above, Shelton High School students Madilyne
Nelsen and Milo McKay portray exes in the play.
IF YOU 60
WHO: Shelton High School stu:
dents. A
WHAT: The romantic 'comedy
play "Almost, Maine.”
WHEN: 7 p.m. Friday, 2:30 and«7
v p.m. Saturday. ' ,
WHERE: Sheltor’l High (School
Performing Arts Center.
ADMISSION: Suggested dona-
tion of_$5 for kids, $10 for adults ,
ALSO: Face masks required, «seat-
ing willbe assignedfor- distanc-' '
s
ing.
venue. There’s even an or-
chestra pit.”