By Sentinel Staff
When “Fuddy Meers,” a dark comedy by David Lindsay-Abaire, opens on the PAC stage Friday, it will be pretty much as Christian Litten imagined it would be.
That’s because Litten is the director of the Sitka High School Theater Department production. And also because he’s been thinking about the play since he was a student at Sitka High (Class of 2003).
When a classmate, Erica Stelzenmuller, handed him a copy of the play, he had immediately loved it.
“It was so neat, dark, funny – really cool, realistic,” Litten said in an interview this week.
“I took it to college with me, just knew I’d be in it one day. .. I had it in my head for 20 years.”
Along with being director and producer of “Fuddy Meers,” Litten had a hand in sound, sets and lighting as well, he noted. While he likes his actors to have some freedom in interpretation, he said from time to time he offered guidance on a character when he saw the need.
“I’d had all the characters in my head for a long time,” Litten said.
Sitka High School drama students run through a scene of the critically acclaimed comedic drama “Fuddy Meers” Wednesday night in the Performing Arts Center. The play opens 7 p.m. Friday, with other performances Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)
In the critically-acclaimed play, which opened off Broadway in 1999, Claire, a woman in her 40s, has amnesia, and every morning her husband and teenage son must fill in the facts of her life. Dramatic and comic plot twists reveal that none of the characters is who they seem to be, even to themselves.
The seven members of the cast are Olivia Wilcox, Abigail Fitzgibbon, Soren Marius, Joe Pate, Zia Allen, Kayla Sheakley, and Levi Danielson. All but Danielson are members of the Sitka High drama, debate, forensics team, which Litten also leads.
The backstage and production crew include Caribeth Gudran, stage manager; Rebecca Poulson, set designer; Zeke Blackwell, light designer; Carole Knuth, costume designer; Margaret Schoenfelder-Hart, makeup designer; Jamal Floate, master carpenter; Christina Vandenhoogen, house manager; and stage crew, Beatrice Perez-Petersen, Savannah Lacey and Rianna Bergman.
Having a small cast was a plus for Litten – fewer roles meant having to spend less time with auditions.
“This is the first year that (theater) has been an after-school program, not a class,” Litten said, and the small cast and backstage complement eased the challenge of finding students willing to work and rehearse after school hours and in the evenings.
“The cast is great – really hard workers, talented,” Litten said.
Another plus is having the Performing Arts Center stage.
“It’s a real treat ... to produce and direct on a real stage, with a real set,” he said.
Litten, who was born and raised in Sitka, is a regular in Sitka community theater, and over the years has appeared in venues as varied as Allen Auditorium, Centennial Hall, Keet and Baranof schools, Sheet’ka Kwaan Naa Kahidi, and in recent years the PAC.
His most recent performance was as Franklin Hart Jr. (the boss) in the Greater Sitka Arts Council Sitka Community Theater’s production of “Nine to Five” in March.
Litten majored in music at the University of Idaho, but was trending toward theater even as an undergraduate, he said.
“Fuddy Meers” will play 7 p.m. Friday, April 19, and Saturday, April 20; and 2:30 p.m. Sunday, April 21 at the Performing Arts Center.
Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for students and can be purchased at the door. This show includes mature language and adult themes. For more information, call 738-5869.
