By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
Funny but dark.
Sweet but mean.
“He likes to mix it up, where it’s never just one genre the whole time,” said Sitka High theater director Christian Litten, describing what drew him to a play – and the playwright, David Lindsay-Abaire.
“Ripcord” is the Sitka High School play that will be staged three times at the Performing Arts Center, at 7 p.m. tonight, Friday and Saturday. Students will give a sample of the play at an school assembly at the PAC Friday afternoon.
“David Lindsay-Abaire is one of my favorite playwrights,” Litten said. “Ripcord” is the second play by the Tony-award winner that Litten has directed at Sitka High.
“It’s got character depth, it’s got a lot of twists and turns and you never know what to expect in this show,” Litten said.
In the story, two nursing home residents, Abby (Sam McLaughlin) and Marilyn (Maia Capp) make a bet which quickly escalates into a dangerous game of one-upsmanship that reveals not only their tenacity but deeper truths each would prefer to keep hidden. Like other works by Lindsay-Abaire, it can run toward “deliciously inappropriate,” Litten said. He said he was also looking for a departure from last year’s play, the fantastical “She Kills Monsters.”
Skydivers prepare to jump out of a plane in a scene from the Sitka High theater department production of “Ripcord,” Wednesday at the Performing Arts Center. Actors are, from left, Isabelle Schmetzer, Maia Capp, Sally Everson, Sam McLaughlin and Eliot Holloway. The show opens 7 p.m. tonight, and runs through Saturday. The show, directed by Christian Litten is rated PG-13 for language and content. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)
“I think it’ll speak to people,” Litten said of “Ripcord.”
“There’s a lot of focus on connection and family and aging and how we communicate with each other, how we go about expressing ourselves to the world, how we communicate to each other and people around us,” he said.
Most of the Sitka High students in the cast and crew are veterans of the Sitka Fine Arts Camp’s Young Performers Theater, the SFAC Musical Theater Camp, and the high school drama, debate and forensics team.
There’s plenty of hustle backstage at dress rehearsal in this often fast-moving play, which requires quick costume changes and removal and reapplication of makeup for different scenes. Cast members help out backstage, getting each other prepped before entrances.
“It’s definitely a very dramatic play with comedy imbued throughout,” said sophomore Aiden LaFriniere, who plays Benjamin and as well as a scary clown. “It walks both lines very well between comedy and drama, and merges the two in a fun, good way. You go from scenes that are the funniest you’ve ever seen and into a scene that makes you cry within a matter of minutes.”
LaFriniere has been acting since elementary school and is enjoying playing a role that is different from ones he’s played in the past.
“It’s more dramatic than I’m used to,” he said. “It’s been a really cool experience to stretch out my wings. I usually play just funny wacky side characters.”
McLaughlin and Capp, both seniors, said they’re enjoying their roles as the elderly women whose conflict spirals out of control.
“As the show goes on you learn more about her past and you find out there’s a reason she’s so mean that helps me justify why I’m yelling at (Marilyn),” McLaughlin said. “It was challenging just being so mean, and I’m not usually as cutting or biting as ‘Abby’ is so just getting myself to the point where I can do that quickly and effectively and convincingly has been a journey.”
An old hand at theater, McLaughlin puts this production in her “top five.”
Capp described the show as “quirky and silly but also touching at times.”
“It’s funny but it’s also going to make people cry, which is good,” she said. Capp likes seeing her character develop over the course of the play, and see the relationship change between the two old women.
“I kind of come to feel sympathy for her, and (Abby) is a little more sympathetic,” Capp said. She said audiences should get a kick out of a skydiving scene, as well as the costumes in the haunted house scene.
“It’s a wide range there, which is great,” she said.
Ben Hedrick, a junior, has appeared in multiple plays including for YPT and Sitka High, and has been on many stage crews. He plays the role of Scotty in “Ripcord.”
“I’ve been acting as long as I can remember,” he said. “I think I’ve been improving since my earlier days and I’m glad to be part of this production.”
Hedrick said he’s enjoyed working with Litten and thinks this play is a good choice because it tackles some more serious issues.
“It definitely goes into a lot of generational trauma, specifically the characters being a mother and a son: they want to be together but they tear each other apart as a form of coping mechanism and self defense,” he said.
Others in the cast are Isabelle Schmetzer as Colleen; Eliot Holloway as Derek/masked man/zombie butler; Kylie Orlando as Woman in White; and Sally Everson as Lucy.
The student crew includes Rianna Bergman as stage manager, and Justin Hames is lightboard operator. Other crew are Sunny McClenahan, Emily Schmetzer, Matthew Pepper, Danica Majeski and Zoe Trafton.
Adult volunteers and professionals staging the play, in addition to Litten, are set designer Elle Campbell, lead carpenter Joe D’Arienzo, lighting designer Denush Vidanapathirana, costume designer Emmie Fish, and sound engineer Jeanne Stolberg. The flight engineer is Jamal Floate.
Volunteers who helped with set construction and other tasks are listed in the program.
Litten put a PG-13 rating on this play because of adult language and mature content.
Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for students, available at the door.
