SEQUIM — Lark Eden. Sounds like a sweet, peaceful refuge from the crazed world.
And so it is, a fictional Georgia town where friendship is shelter. Here, we meet Emily, Thelma and Mary, storytellers of “Lark Eden,” the staged reading opening tonight for a two-weekend run at Olympic Theatre Arts’ Gathering Hall.
The friendship is born in 1935, deep in the Depression, when the girls are grade-schoolers passing notes in class.
Then life sweeps them up, moving them away to other towns. But they don’t lose touch.
As their journeys — and American history — unfold, we ride the crests and valleys with them, via the letters they send to one another.
“Lark Eden” travels forward, covering three quarters of a century and ending in 2007.
“Just to see the passing of time. Oh, my golly,” said Elaine Caldwell, the production manager and longtime Olympic Theatre Arts advocate.
“Lark’s” actors come from all over: Charlotte Price, who moved to Sequim from Baton Rouge, La., portrays Thelma, a prudent Christian who yearns to be a good mother. Sequim’s Cheri Lemley is Emily, who is on a fervent quest for something to believe in. Texan Melissa Murray portrays Mary, a smart-mouthed character who spends much of her life caring for her mother and grandmother.
When director Charlotte Carroll — who moved here recently from Juneau, Alaska — held auditions, she seemed to know right away who should play whom, says Lemley.
And yes, there are similarities between this and “Steel Magnolias,” Olympic Theatre Arts’ spring main-stage show.
But “Lark Eden” is about women who are separated geographically, and who stay connected through a sweeping series of historical events.
“There’s a lot of nuance and subtext,” a lot to think about in the course of these stories, said Murray.
The Gathering Hall offers a more laid-back ambiance than OTA’s main playhouse and, thanks to Caldwell, the beverage bar will have peach-infused drinks, with or without alcohol, in honor of the play’s Georgia setting.
“Lark” isn’t only about the South, however. Caldwell sees the women’s experiences as a reflection of American life in the 20th and 21st centuries, in all of its comic and tragic turns.
“This play takes you back,” she said. “You see your life with a new perspective. and that’s kind of cool.”
