Today and tonight are Friday, Oct. 25.
PORT ANGELES — Meet Annie, a writer, sort of. She means to write. Something brilliant is inside, waiting to be written.
“But she keeps getting in her own way,” says Manda Lavin, the actress portraying our heroine.
She makes excuses, procrastinates and then, soon after her audience arrives, she at last starts to create.
What happens next is the story of “Spark,” an original play to premiere tonight and continue next weekend at Peninsula College’s Little Theater. Shannon Cosgrove of Port Angeles is the writer and director of the show, whose full title is “Spark: A Play about Creativity and Trolls.” Show time is 8 o’clock tonight, Saturday night and next Friday and Saturday, Nov. 1 and 2.
Tickets are $15 at www.brownpapertickets.com and at Odyssey Books, 114 W. Front St., or $20 at the door of the Little Theater.
“What Annie hasn’t counted on,” Cosgrove writes, “is her very own Voice of Reason. He’s testy, and he has an agenda. He wheedles, challenges and guides her to take a deeper look at her world.”
Annie encounters a variety of characters — including trolls, who curse a lot and make “Spark” a play for patrons age 18 and older.
“Naomi Alstrup provides stage direction and brilliant choreography,” Cosgrove noted. “Leah Bauman is our head musicologist and set creator. The visionary Katie Carlson provided set and costume design,” besides being a cast member.
Cosgrove also touts “a fantastic cast, led by Manda Lavin. . . . She’s a force, and her journey from self-indulgent to full-fledged artist will make you laugh, cry and not be at all sorry you spent 15 bucks to get through the door.”
The show features a variety of local actors and dancers: Ron Graham, Meggan Uecker, Tim Tucker, Jovi Deede, Michael Graham, Nikki Adams, Kristi Robinson, Liz Seifert, Jackie Purvis, Denise Williams and Zachery Luke King Moorman appear.
Alstrup has many of them breaking into songs and dances, Broadway musical-style. She’s enjoyed the challenge of mixing choreography into the “Spark” script.
Cosgrove is “a brilliant writer,” Alstrup added — perhaps not unlike her protagonist Annie.
