PORT ANGELES — Woody Allen once said, “If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.”
The quote serves as the inspiration for the Port Angeles Community Players’ upcoming comedy, “Making God Laugh” by Sean Grennan.
The play opens at 7:30 p.m. today at the Port Angeles Community Playhouse, 1235 E. Lauridsen Blvd.
Performances continue at 7:30 p.m. Saturday; 2 p.m. Sunday; 7:30 p.m. Tuesday; 7:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 1; 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 2; 2 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 3; 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 5; 7:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 8; 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 9; and 2 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 10.
Tickets are $15 for adults and $8 for students. On Tuesday nights, any unsold seats will cost $8 at the door. The play is recommended for those at least 12 years old.
Tickets can be purchased at PACommunityPlayers.com or in person at Brocante Antiques, 105 W. First St. in Port Angeles.
The play follows a suburban family through 30 years of family gatherings, sharing plans, family jokes and holiday meals. But as plans go, life gets in the way and they arrive at unplanned destinations.
The audience is let in on the dynamics that can evolve during family gatherings as they meet domineering matriarch Ruthie (Cheryl Dawn Koenig), patient father Bill (Pete Christensen) and siblings former high school football star Richard (Jonas Brown), aspiring actress Maddie (Kristin Ulsund) and priest-in-training Thomas (Jason Thompson).
From 1980 through the 2000s, the play explores popular culture of the times: 8-track tapes, Enron investments, trendy cars, the real estate bubble, dot-coms and Y2K.
As the siblings age, their plans take different turns, and as the parents age, the family dynamic transforms.
The play includes an abundance of humor, the traditional family dish that everyone hates, a bit of dysfunction, “picture time,” an overbearing mother, sibling rivalry and inside jokes.
“This is a very different type of holiday play than you are used to,” director Barbara Frederick said. “It is funny, touching and poignant, but it can also be quite dramatic and sometimes very real.”
“Families and holidays are synonymous, and when this family sees each other only once or twice a year, all kinds of things can happen, and they do,” Frederick continued.
“We watch the two sons and one daughter come of age and the parents deal with aging, too. We see struggles with very difficult decisions and role reversals, but at the heart of it all is what it means to be part of a family.”
Jason Thompson, Kristin Ulsund, Cheryl Koenig, Pete Christensen and Jonas Brown of the Port Angeles Community Players, from left, rehearse “Making God Laugh.” (Kate Carter)
