Play explores different joys, challenges of love
Jimmy (Trevor Fuller) lost one girlfriend, but he may have found another one (Izzy Sica) in the Moses Lake High School production of ‘Almost, Maine,’ opening Thursday.
Glory (Cynthia Urena) holds tight to the pieces of her broken heart, getting a sympathetic hearing from East (Trevor Fuller) in the Moses Lake High School production of ‘Almost, Maine,” opening Thursday.
MOSES LAKE — The many facets of love – good, bad, slightly supernatural – will be explored in the Moses Lake High School production of “Almost, Maine,” opening Thursday for a three-day run at the MLHS Theater, 803 East Sharon Ave.
Showtimes are 7 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday, with a matinee at 1 p.m. Saturday. Tickets are $8 per person, $7 for MLHS students with an ASB card and senior citizens. Matinee tickets are $7 per person. Tickets will be available at the door.
“I wanted to stretch my actors and challenge them to do something different,” said director Sabrina Tym. She’s also the advisor for the school’s drama club, Masque and Gavel.
The play explores love – meeting the person of your dreams, ending a relationship that isn’t working, trying to break up and realizing it would be a big mistake – over the course of one cold winter night when the northern lights come to town. Almost, Maine isn’t really a town, more of a wide spot in the road, with a definite undertone of the supernatural.
A couple encounters one another when the girl comes to Maine to say goodbye to her estranged husband (with the help of the northern lights) and camps in the guy’s yard. A couple meet on a Friday night in the apartment laundromat, courtesy of an ironing board, and a girl has to acknowledge what it means for her relationship. A chance meeting in a bar forces a man to face the fact his ex-girlfriend is moving on – but maybe there’s a path for him to move on too.
“It’s more challenging than the typical high school play,” Tym said. Love can be tough; it can bring pain as well as happiness. And the idea that love isn’t only romantic love is illustrated by a scene where two girls become friends.
Almost is a different kind of place. A couple argues over the love they gave each other, literally heaping it in bags on the floor. People fall from the sky, and a man shrinks as he loses faith in love.
“Almost, Maine” was written by John Cariani and premiered Off-Broadway in 2006. It closed after a month, but became very popular with theatrical companies around the nation. In 2014 it was the most-produced high school play in the country.
The eight-person ensemble cast at MLHS includes Cameron Shurtz, Izzy Sica, Trevor Fuller, Katie Irwin, Bailey Lang, Giulia Ballabio, Cynthia Urena and Claire Smith.
Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at education@columbiabasinherald.com.