PORT TOWNSEND — You have never seen anything like this, actress and singer Karen Skrinde promises.
Immediately following her starring role in Key City Public Theatre’s “Spirit of the Yule,” Skrinde, a Seattle-based performer, will not rest. She will metamorphose.
On New Year’s Eve Skrinde becomes Anne-Margarita, cabaret singer and purveyor of a decidedly adult show especially for KCPT.
Make that a double: Anne-Margarita and her piano-playing partner in crime, Linda Dowdell, will present their cabaret “Anne-Margarita on the Rocks” twice Tuesday at the Key City Playhouse, 419 Washington St.
Tickets are available at the door on a pay-what-you-wish basis for the early show at 2:30 p.m. And for the slightly later show at 7 p.m. — timed to let people out in time for the First Night fireworks display over downtown Port Townsend — tickets can be had for $20 via keycitypublictheatre.org or 360-385-5278.
For those who’ve purchased the $10 Port Townsend First Night pass, “Anne-Margarita on the Rocks” is included, as it’s part of downtown’s New Year’s Eve festivities presented by the Jefferson County Museum of Art & History.
For details about the many First Night events, see JCHSMuseum.org or phone the museum at 360-385-1003.
“Anne-Margarita” is not for children, Skrinde emphasizes. It’s an insouciant look back at Miss Margarita’s “career” — air quotes hers — as in the good, the bad and the ugly.
“I serve it to you much like my life has played out,” Skrinde said, slipping into character, “on the rocks, and in a cracked, lipstick-stained glass.”
Skrinde herself has enjoyed a varied life in Pacific Northwest theater. Before coming to play Miz Henrietta Maynard in “Spirit of the Yule” her roles have included Sister Mary Amnesia in “Nunsense,” Gooch in “Mame” and Mrs. Cooke in “ZM: The Zombie Musical,” at venues including Seattle’s 5th Avenue Theatre. She’s also co-creator of cabaret shows at jazz clubs around the Puget Sound.
With “Anne-Margarita on the Rocks,” Skrinde plunges headlong into another role altogether. She intends to astound patrons with a “hilarious, unhinged perspective on the world.”
Is this show about love? Survival? Helpful tips on getting through life?
“Maybe,” she said.
Regardless, “come celebrate 2020 with a gal whose vision is definitely not.”
When asked to explain further, Margarita said simply: “Viva Las Vegas!”
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Diane Urbani de la Paz, a former features editor for the Peninsula Daily News, is a freelance writer living in Port Townsend.
