Tag Archives: Joanna Hardie

‘Little Shop,’ ‘Reefer Madness have Kitsap connections

If you go to Second Story Repertory‘s production of “Little Shop of Horrors,” it’s likely some of the cast and crew will be familiar to you.

Seattle Musical Theatre‘s “Reefer Madness,” winding up a two-weekend run this weekend, also has some familiar faces on stage and behind the scenes.

“Little Shop” is directed by Ken Michels, who’s done a number of shows at Bainbridge Performing Arts, and will be helming BPA’s holiday production of “Mary Poppins.” Joanna Hardie, who was a performer, choreographer and assistant director of BPA’s “A Chorus Line,” also directed last season’s “The Drowsy Chaperone” and will have the helm for “The Little Mermaid” next May. Hardie is playing Audrey, the female lead, at Second Story.

Cherisse Martinelli, who grew up on Kitsap stages and was the 2015 recipient of the Miss West Sound title, is cast in the trio. Doug Fahl doesn’t have any stage credits in Kitsap, was one of the leads in the 2009 film “ZMD: Zombies of Mass Destruction,” which was shot in Port Gamble. Port Orchard’s Justin Silver is the plant puppeteer for Audrey 2.

Second Story’s next show, which opens Dec. 4, is “A Christmas Carol,” which features John Clark — so memorable teaming with Curtis Jacobson in “The Mystery of Irma Vep” at Key City Public Theater last summer — as Ebenezer Scrooge.

SMT’s “Reefer Madness” is directed by former BPA artistic director Steven Fogell, and his cast includes Bremerton’s Michelle Abad as The Placard Girl.

Second Story Repertory is in the Redmond Town Center. The show runs through November 15, with 8 p.m. shows on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, with a closing 2 p.m. matinee on Nov. 15.

Seattle Musical Theatre is at 7120 62nd Ave. NE in the Sand Point neighborhood. There are 7:30 p.m. shows on Oct. 29 and 30, and a 10:30 p.m. late-night show will close the run on Oct. 30.

Information: Second Story Repertory — 425-881-6777, secondstoryrep.orghttp://secondstoryrep.org  Seattle Musical Theatre — 206-363-2809, seattlemusicaltheatre.org

— MM

Ferry foibles can’t sink BPA’s ‘Drowsy Chaperone’

0501_KSFE_Drowsy3Play-goers stuck in the May 8 ferry back-up between Seattle and Bainbridge, fretting that they’d be late for the opening-night curtain of Bainbridge Performing Arts‘ “The Drowsy Chaperone,” needn’t have worried: Members of the cast and crew they were going to see were — so to speak — in the same boat.

The show was about 25 minutes late getting started, and showed no ill effects of the delay. A number of patrons did arrive late, however, and were ushered directly in (normal protocol would ask them to wait for a scene change or other break in the action).

BPA did benefit, in an off-hand way, from the ferry flub. A KIRO-TV news crew found director Joanna Hardie and a carload of cast members waiting on the Colman dock and making them part of their report. Free publicity; can’t be bad.

Further ferry foibles permitting, the “Drowsy Chaperone” runs through May 24. Information: 206-842-8569, bainbridgeperformingarts.org.

Read the full review here: http://www.kitsapsun.com/entertainment/theater-bpas-chaperone-shrugs-off-late-start-and-dazzles_88619280