By Erin Hawkins
Olympic Peninsula News Group
SEQUIM — Olivia Shea and Pat Owens — actors, directors and friends who first performed together about 45 years ago — together have 100 years of theater experience. It is only natural they will take on the characters of Fonsia Dorsey and Weller Martin as the two-character cast in “The Gin Game.”
“The Gin Game” will run for two weekends from tonight through May 21 with performances at 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays in the Olympic Theatre Arts Gathering Hall, 414 N. Sequim Ave. Beverage bar and concessions will be available.
Tickets are on sale at the theater box office or online at www.olympictheatrearts.org.
This Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Donald L. Coburn was the only play the author wrote.
“Most people are going to be able to relate to this,” said director Dimitri Gerasimenko. “It’s something everybody knows.”
“The Gin Game” features two characters, Fonsia and Weller, who meet in a retirement home and find companionship in each other — and in gin rummy.
When Weller teaches Fonsia to play, the characters learn more about each other and explore the themes of aging, family, life’s choices, companionship and love.
Gerasimenko said this is his first play as a director. He added that he and the two actors work well together.
“I’m very comfortable with the relationship with them,” Gerasimenko said. “There is a lot of respect between the three of us.”
Shea and Owens have a history of theater experience together both in acting and directing. The performers first acted together in Spokane in 1972 and reconnected years later after Shea and Owens both moved to Sequim at separate times.
“I moved out here way before he did and then I saw him at a play one time and said, ‘Oh my God, there’s Pat!’ ” Shea said.
This will be the first performance where the show will star just the two of them.
“The idea of being able to do this show with someone I knew — and I knew he was a very good actor — I thought that was fun.”
Shea also said she directed this play 20 years ago.
“I loved the characters because they’re drawn pretty well and the dialogue is natural; I thought I’d always love to play that part,” she said.
Owens shares the same sentiments.
“I liked the show since the first time I read it and suggested to the theater they keep it as a last-minute substitute,” Owens said. “It would be a good show for Olivia and I to do together.”
Owens said he had not planned to audition for the part because he was just coming off a show in Port Angeles, but when he received an email from Shea saying, “You should do ‘The Gin Game,’ ” he agreed it would be a great opportunity.
“We’ve never been in a play where it’s just the two of us,” Shea said.
When it comes to acting together in “The Gin Game,” Shea said Weller and Fonsia are complex characters.
“It’s sad in a way. Neither one of them has visitors, so they are seeking company in each other,” she said.
“The gin game almost becomes a character in itself,” Owens added. “Weller is driven to win.”
The actors describe their characters “almost like a married couple” and believe the audience will be able to relate to the dialogue and modern themes the play presents.
“That’s the thing I want people to come and see is a really well-written play about two people who could be anybody you know,” Shea said.
“That’s what drew me to it in the first place was the fact that these are real people,” Owens said.
For more information, contact the OTA box office between 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays at 360-683-7326.
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Erin Hawkins is a reporter with the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which is composed of Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News, Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum. Reach her at ehawkins@sequimgazette.com.
