SEQUIM — One time, the old battery-operated chair just quit. A woman riding it to a play being staged on the Dungeness Schoolhouse’s second floor was stranded mid-staircase.
“It was like she was on the Titanic,” quipped Ric Munhall, a dramatic actor in many a Readers Theatre Plus production at the schoolhouse, the big white historic building at 2781 Towne Road.
There was also the time when a woman had to be carried up the stairs, again because the chair lift wouldn’t budge.
It became clear to Readers Theatre Plus members that their venue, a 121-year-old building with no elevator, was unsuitable.
To serve the whole community, troupe co-founder Carol Swarbrick Dries said, the schoolhouse had to be made handicapped-accessible.
“Unfortunately, Readers Theatre Plus has come to an impasse,” she added, so the troupe is taking a hiatus until the chair lift is replaced with something more reliable.
To that end, Readers Theatre Plus and Sequim’s Museum & Arts Center are raising money for a vertical platform lift, the $22,000 elevator-like conveyance also known as a VPL.
To make this more fun than it sounds, Munhall and fellow Sequim actor Shelley Taylor have rustled up a herd of singers, dancers and storytellers for a VPL variety show being staged twice Saturday at the schoolhouse.
Plucked from casts
“It’ll be a hoot,” Munhall said of the event, a showcase of performers seen in local productions including “The Wild West Mikado,” “Cotton Patch Gospel,” “South Pacific,” “The Winter Wonderettes” and “A Century of Sequim,” along with members of the Peninsula Singers, the Port Angeles Community Players and Peninsula College’s Drama Department.
There will be a scene from Moliere, folk songs and other musical numbers, and some a cappella harmonies in “just a free-flowing talent show kind of thing,” said Munhall, who will serve as master of ceremonies.
Show times are 2 p.m. and 5:30 p.m., with tickets $12 in advance or $15 at the door.
Future opportunities
Patrons have ample opportunity to donate further to the VPL cause, said Taylor.
She’s also put together a classic car display as the event’s outdoor element. The car show will go on weather permitting, she said.
Taylor urges guests to “come early and stay late,” as food and drink will be available for purchase. Docents will be on hand to give schoolhouse tours, too.
“I put a call out and said, ‘Hey, this is happening, and I need volunteers to entertain.’ It was amazing how many people called back,” Munhall said.
“I wanted to have a potpourri variety show, and now I do.”
In the 2 p.m. matinee, singers Vicki Helwick, John Silver and Ron Graham are on the bill, along with actors Michael Aldrich, Helen Bucher and Kyra Humphrey, plus Sheryl Smith with her women’s barbershop group Treble around the Sound. Leona Voss, the artist formerly known as Elise Ray, also will sing.
Each has chosen his or her own set of music and merriment, said Munhall.
Volunteer effort
All are volunteering in the tradition of Readers Theatre Plus, which uses its shows to generate funds for local nonprofit groups.
The 5:30 p.m. show brings together singers Joel Yelland, Carl Honore, Laura Lee Nastri, storyteller Karla Morgan and Peggy Wilson’s group Stringology; actors Richard Stephens and Lara Starcevich will add the Moliere piece to the evening’s mix.
Readers Theatre Plus members are hopeful about moving back into the venue, said Swarbrick Dries.
“Quite honestly, the schoolhouse had become our home,” she said.
The troupe typically gives its plays and musicals two-week runs, and it did bring shows to a couple of other Sequim-area venues: Olympic Theatre Arts and the Sequim Prairie Grange.
They were “wonderful,” Swarbrick Dries said, but “they were really not set up for our productions over two successive weekends.”
She added that one last production, “A Nice Family Gathering,” was at the schoolhouse before Readers Theatre Plus’ hiatus.
The show ran Oct. 17-26 since the troupe had already made a commitment to stage it as a benefit for the Port Angeles Symphony Orchestra.
Advance tickets to this Saturday’s VPL variety show are available at Odyssey Books, 114 W. Front St., Port Angeles, and at Purple Haze Lavender, 127 W. Washington St., Sequim. Tickets will also be available at the schoolhouse door.
For more information about the VPL effort and to donate to the schoolhouse fund, visit the Museum & Arts Center website, www.macsequim.org, or phone 360-683-8110.
Contributions can also be mailed to the MAC at 175 W. Cedar St., Sequim, WA 98382; or to Readers Theatre Plus, P.O. Box 395, Carlsborg, WA 98324.
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Features Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5062, or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
