Daily Sitka Sentinel

Shop Romance to be Played Out on Sitka Stage

By TOM HESSE
Sentinel Staff Writer
    Before there was “You’ve Got Mail” there was “Shop Around the Corner,” and before that there was the 1930s Hungarian play about workplace romance, “Parfumerie.”
    That play, which inspired the two Hollywood hit films, will be staged by the Greater Sitka Arts Council’s Sitka Community Theater at the Performing Arts Center next week, with 7 p.m. performances April 18, 19 and 20.
    Director Sotera Perez said that for the past 11 weeks her actors have transitioned from reading scripts to building the chemistry necessary to carry a romantic comedy.

    “I think it’s going to be great,” Perez said. “We have some really beautiful moments that have developed with the cast, and some really tight performances.”
    After auditions in January, the cast began meeting several times a week in Rasmuson Student Center on the SJ Campus to rehearse in a room that’s considerably smaller than the stage where the production will ultimately be played out. Perez said it’s been a challenge coordinating personalities and styles into characters the audience can identify with.
    “One thing that was always very important to me with this play has been building these relationships. There’s these duos that develop and they lean on each other for various emotional points,” Perez said, adding that it’s a challenge with so many community members who had not previously worked with, or even met, each other.
    “Watching the actors sort of organically come to an understanding of how their characters relate to each other has been so beautiful to watch. You can really see that they believe in these friendships and that’s the sort of thing that audiences relate to,” Perez said. “It’s been nice to see that happen, especially since a lot of our cast weren’t acquainted, and so we’re taking these strangers and throwing them into these situations where it’s like, ‘OK, you guys have been working together for eight years, every single day.’”
    Deirdre LaBounty is putting the finishing touches on one of those characters. She plays Miss Molnar, who is “very disinterested in drama. She thinks she’s very above it all.”
    LaBounty said community theater is fun because of the way it brings different actors and styles together for a common project.
    “You meet new people that you haven’t worked with before and sometimes you get to work with people you’ve worked with before or people that you’ve seen in plays but haven’t got to interact with before,” LaBounty said. “It’s really great seeing all these people come together because community theater really does bring people together from all different places to put something together from almost nothing.”
    The cast for “Parfumerie” numbers around 15, which is large by community theater criteria. That means more than a dozen different schedules to manage, costume and place on stage.
    “There are points where it’s more like choreography but that’s true of any production,” Perez said.
    In addition to the cast, there’s a large support network handling production, costumes and set design. That means that when Perez is trying to sort out a way to produce something she can turn to other people for input.
    “The interesting thing about doing community theater is that everybody gets to have a say, which is really cool,” Perez said. “People are coming at things from angles that I would have never examined.”
    That’s been particularly valuable in the set design. The play is set in a 1930s perfume store in Budapest. Perez said J. Bradley, the show’s technical director, researched the styles of the time and encouraged Perez to let him design the set in an Art Nouveau style rather than an Art Deco style after he discovered that the styles in Eastern Europe – where the play is set – was a few decades behind the styles most associate with the 1930s.
    “He has really influenced the fluidity of a lot of the lines and that’s just something I never would have examined,” Perez said.
    “I cannot give enough credit to my production crew who have just been tireless. They are building to spec several pieces of furniture for us. We’ve got display shelves and a giant bay window and a big round couch that’s going to sit in the middle of our set, which is really cool,” she added.
    She added that the collective thinking has helped push the play in directions she wouldn’t think to take it.
    “Coming together and using this brain trust that I have and it’s leading to an almost more progressive piece,” Perez said. “I tend to be a little more old school and conservative when it comes to theater and this has allowed us to be a little more far-reaching than I would have done.”
    The extra voices have also been helpful when it comes to wardrobes.
    “Our costumers have been recreating the Eastern European, pre-World War II feel to all of the costumes,” Perez said. “Every time they find something and bring it to me I’m shocked at what they can find in this small town. It’s like, ‘Where did you find a Romanian officers jacket from World War II?’”
    Perez said when it all comes together it will be a look the community theater hasn’t seen yet.
    “We don’t see this particular design aesthetic in Sitka very often. I just gave (my production team) a general feel for the design I wanted and the colors I wanted and they just ran with it.”
    The cast is rounding out its last week in Rasmuson before it heads to the Performing Arts Center for dress rehearsals next week. LaBounty said the excitement for the show is starting to build among the actors.
    “You can see dress rehearsal right around the corner and we’re ready for that transition to the stage, which is going to be exciting,” she said.
    The show will play next Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 7 p.m. Tickets for the show are $10 or $8 for students and seniors. Tickets can be purchased at Old Harbor Books or at the door.
    Perez hopes all the work will produce a show that lets the audience identify with the characters in the same way the actors have taken hold of them over the last few weeks.
    “There are some really universally touching, emotional points in the play. I think that, if we’ve done our jobs, there’s going to be something that the audience will be able to reach into and pull out.”