SEQUIM — It’s a revival of sorts for the Sequim High Operetta Club as students look to make their latest effort a hit after returning to the stage for their first shows since spring 2019.
An updated version of the Jane Austen classic coupled with radio hits make up “Emma: A Pop Musical,” a production that will play for three weekends beginning Friday at the school auditorium, 533 N. Sequim Ave.
The opening-night show will be at 7:30 p.m. Friday. Matinees are at 2 p.m. Saturdays, May 7, 14 and 21, and nightly shows are planned at 7 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, May 13-14, 20-21.
Tickets are $15 for adults, $10 for students at the door. Seating is limited to about 200 per showing.
Kariya Johnson, who splits the role with freshman Dana Carlile, said she’s always dreamed of performing as a senior in the operetta.
“It’s an important time to support high schoolers and start getting them more involved,” Johnson said.
“We need to show junior-highers and high schoolers we can build this program back up. It could be something awesome again.”
This will be director Tia Stephens’ first show despite being hired to lead SHS’ operettas in January 2020. Two weeks into rehearsals for “The Addams Family” musical, the emergence of COVID-19 led school officials to cancel in-person programming.
“Legally Blonde” was the high school’s last stage show. That was in spring 2019.
Stephens said some late-in-the-game factors this year cut rehearsals from 12 weeks to eight; school sports have led some understudies to take on lead roles the last weekend of shows.
“There’s been a lot of coming together very quickly,” she said.
With 15 actors in “Emma,” there are two casts alternating the same scenes in rehearsals to accommodate various schedules.
“They’ve had half as many opportunities in their roles but have worked twice as hard,” Stephens said.
Madelyn Pickens, who plays heartthrob pop star Frankie along with being in the ensemble, is one of three seniors including Johnson and Henry Hughes, playing Jeff, in “Emma.”
Pickens said she was cast as Puglsey in “The Addams Family” but finds her newest role more challenging as she takes on songs such as “Heartbreaker” by Pat Benatar.
“I’ve always wanted to do something like this,” Pickens said, because it reinforces that people can try and enjoy more than one thing.
“I don’t consider myself a singer, but I’m excited for this show and I want to put everything I have into it,” Pickens said.
Classic updated
Featuring songs popularized by female singers and groups, “Emma” has the titular character pursuing love for fellow classmates such as Harriett (Danika Chen/Lili Mitchell) with some miscues, cast members say.
“It’s about a girl who is trying to match-make her friend and she kind of messes up a lot so she’s trying to fix it,” Carlile said.
“It just causes a whole lot of issues for people,” Johnson said.
“It’s definitely a case of someone who doesn’t know what they want from themselves. She puts all of her time into finding things for other people. But really her time and effort should be figuring out what she wants to find in life.”
Johnson said the message is timely, particularly as we come out of the pandemic.
“Sometimes it’s best to take a step back from other people and activities and ask what I want,” she said.
Stephens, a 2008 Port Angeles High School graduate, said she was jealous of Sequim’s theater program as she grew up because her school didn’t have musicals. Now, with a degree in directing from Western Washington University, she sees this as a “dream job” that fits in with her day job schedule.
Carlile, a first time actor, said it’s been fun to see the musical come together.
“It’s got ’80s to more recent music,” she said. “It’s really fun music and a lot of things people have heard before, so I think they’ll come in knowing they’ll like the music.”
With the operetta a long-standing tradition as part of the Sequim Irrigation Festival, Pickens said the operetta is just a lot of fun.
“You have plenty of different niches for people in school like sports and for me operetta is really fun,” she said. “Theater is so fun. I really love being able to be up there.”
For more information, email operettashs@gmail.com.
________
Matthew Nash 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 him at mnash@sequimgazette.com.
