SEQUIM — Inspired by true events, Olympic Theatre Arts’ coming production of “Bakersfield Mist” by Stephen Sachs, is cast and in rehearsal.
“Bakersfield Mist” will run from Jan. 18 to Jan. 27; performance times will be Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. Pay-what-you-will night will be Jan. 24, and every night is Talk-Back Night.
The production contains strong language.
Tickets are $12 for the general public, $10 for OTA members and $10 for students with school identification card.
Tickets are available at the theatre box office from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, or online at www.Olympic TheatreArts.org.
In what has been called a “salty” comedy set in a trailer park in Bakersfield, Calif., Sara Nicholls is cast as brash, 50-something Maude, who thinks she has bought a million-dollar painting for just a few bucks at a thrift store.
Steve Rodeman is cast as elite art scholar Lionel who comes out from New York to evaluate the work.
“The show is about the contrast of two very different world views,” director Josh Sutcliffe said.
“I was looking for people who had a natural delivery, who had a sense of comedic timing,” said Sutcliffe, comparing watching the two characters interact throughout the play to peeling an onion.
“The comedy comes with those two characters finding their way and bumping into each other clumsily.”
Nicholls, an OTA actor and board member, was most recently seen in OTA’s drama “The Tin Woman.”
“For me, Maude is a very different character than anything I’ve played before,” Nicholls said. “So often they’re very similar to me and so this is interesting.
“Maude is fun and she’s human, and she’s just trying to get along, and I love that about her. She doesn’t have a filter in what she says and how it comes out. She’s just Maude, and you can take her or leave her. She’s comfortable in her own skin.”
When asked about the strong language in the play, Nicholls said, “While I don’t want to offend anybody, it’s part of who she is. It’s not a shock value, it’s just her. We’re portraying the character honestly, and that’s part of it.”
Said Rodeman: “I’ll go on the record to say it is not my nature.”
Rodeman is back on the stage after a 40-year break. He was referring to his overly pompous role.
“The comedy is in the situation of an elite East Coast art scholar being plopped in the middle of a Bakersfield trailer park. There’s dogs barking and Jack Daniels swilling, beer bottle wind chimes … It’s bringing these two world visions together and seeing where the rub is.”
While the play is billed as a comedy, it also enjoys a considerable undercurrent of humanity, OTA members said.
“There’s a lot of poignancy in what Maude has to say, and there is a lot of humanity in Lionel,” Sutcliffe said. “I’m attracted to thought provoking shows. Bakersfield Mist raises a lot of questions – What does it mean to be authentic? What is honesty? What is art? And what does it matter?”
For more information, call the theatre at 360-683-7326.
