PORT ANGELES — Actress and choreographer Anna Pederson, veteran of many musicals and plays, wanted to dance.
And it would be lovely, she thought, to be in a show with her new husband, Jeremy Pederson.
This is where “Be careful what you wish for” comes in.
Anna stars opposite Jeremy in “Salome,” a production drenched in sexual politics, this weekend and next at Peninsula College.
In this Oscar Wilde play, she is the seductress who performs the Dance of the Seven Veils in exchange for the beheading of John the Baptist.
He is portrayed by Jeremy.
So the story is rather intense — which is what directors Lara Starcevich and Richard Stephens were after.
They have assembled a cast of 20 from campus and community while engaging Lauren Jeffries-Johnson, cofounder of the Shula Azhar bellydance troupe, as choreographer.
“It will be a feast for the senses,” Stephens promised, adding that Wilde’s “Salome,” though written in 1891, is all too relevant with its elements of female power, voyeurism, religion and dysfunctional family struggle.
“Salome” opened Friday night and will have four more performances: at 7:30 tonight (Saturday night), at 2 p.m. Sunday and at 7:30 p.m. next Friday and Saturday, Nov. 21 and 22, in the Little Theater at Peninsula College, 1502 E. Lauridsen Blvd.
Due to its sexual themes and violent content, the play is for mature audiences.
A “talk-back” discussion among audience, cast and crew will follow Sunday’s matinee.
Tickets are $12 for the general public, $10 for seniors and free to Peninsula College students. They’re on sale at www.BrownPaperTickets.com and, if available, at the door before each performance.
In this story, Salome is the stepdaughter of Herod, ruler of Judaea. The play opens with a party scene where a drunken Herod is infatuated with Salome; she’s trying to get away.
Salome encounters John the Baptist. She’s heard much about this prophet and has wanted to see him for herself.
Once the two do connect, Salome offers herself to John.
But instead of taking her, he tells her how she can repent and seek the messiah.
“She laughs at the idea,” said Anna.
Rejected, Salome returns home to concoct revenge.
Her tale crescendoes in the Dance of the Seven Veils, a performance that will place her in a fog of coppery organza, black chiffon, sequins, beads and, finally, swaths of fiery red and orange.
“She is going to be beautiful,” Jeffries-Johnson said of Anna.
This story is filled with archetypes: Salome the seductress, her stepfather the trickster and Herodias, her mother.
Stephens wanted to humanize these characters and create an intimate production. So he and Starcevich will invite the audience to be seated on stage, a few feet from the dance.
“Salome” conjures up images of forbidden fruit and objectified women, Starcevich added.
“And yet, at the same time, [the play is] presenting a truly empowered woman: A woman who is the mistress of her own destiny, challenging fate.”
Stephens, for his part, gave thanks for the performers, who are peeling away the story’s old stereotypes.
Herod is portrayed by Mark Valentine while Anna Andersen is his wife, Herodias; supporting cast members include Jonas Brown, John Latson, Fred Robinson, Steven Berry, Michael Roggenbuck and Sarah Tucker.
For information about “Salome,” visit www.pencol.edu, find Peninsula College’s Facebook page, or contact the college’s Drama Department at 360-417-6478.
