Vashon Repertory Theatre — the upstart company founded in 2020 by islander Charlotte Tiencken, has announced its expansive next season, to be staged in venues ranging from Kay White Hall to more intimate spaces including the Black Cat Cabaret and the North End Grange Hall.
The season has a literary bent — it features works of theater inspired by Edgar Allan Poe, Charles Dickens, and beloved Northwest author Brian Doyle. But the season is also distinctly musical, historical and Vashon-centric.
It’s Vashon Isle
The season’s opening show, “It’s Vashon Isle!” starring Jeff Hoyt as none other than P. Monroe Smock, the editor of the Vashon Island News-Record, will run Oct. 13-15, at Vashon Center for the Arts (VCA).
In 1926, Smock — in a performance worthy of P.T. Barnum — took to Seattle radio airwaves with a one-hour “show” extolling the wonders of Vashon — creating, essentially, what might well have been the first infomercial ever created.
Smock promised gifts to listeners who responded while introducing island singers and performers, who threaded the broadcast with musical entertainment.
In “It’s Vashon Isle,” Hoyt will bring this iconic 1926 radio address back to life on the stage of Kay White Hall.
Accompanied by historic images rendered by Smock’s rosy oratory, Hoyt will also stage conversations with modern-day island guests for perspective on the era.
And, of course, there will be music from both the original program and more recent odes to Vashon played by contemporary island performers — including Kat Eggleston, Steffon Moody, Members of the Vashon Island Chorale, The Filson Sisters, and many others.
The show will serve as a benefit for the Vashon Heritage Museum and Voice of Vashon.
Edgar Allan Poe, The Poet’s Journey
This one-man show, featuring actor Bradford Farwell in the title role, tells the true story of Edgar Allan Poe’s ambitious idea to launch a literary magazine called The Stylus that would exclusively feature the work of American writers.
The show will have two performances only, on October 28, at Snapdragon’s Black Cat Cabaret.
In 1849, a publishing house in St Louis told Poe that if he could persuade 1000 people to subscribe to The Stylus, they would publish the magazine.
With that incentive, Poe traveled to cities and towns along the east coast, offering his literary opinions and performing his poems and stories in the hope of convincing his audience to subscribe, at forty cents a month for one year, to The Stylus.
A Christmas Carol
A one-man telling of the famous Charles Dickens classic, starring renowned stage actor Allen Fitzpatrick, will be presented in two performances only, on Dec. 16, at VCA.
In his show, Fitzpatrick follows in the footsteps of Dickens, who, a few years after writing “A Christmas Carol,” began public readings of the novella, which he continued to perform until the year of his death.
Fitzpatrick has acted at every major Seattle theatre; he was featured in 28 productions at the 5th Avenue Theatre.
He has spent 48 years on Broadway and in professional theatre, working alongside such notables as Stephen Sondheim, Andrew Lloyd-Webber, Harold Prince, John Guare, and Marvin Hamlisch. He debuted on Broadway in Les Misérables.
Among his other eight Broadway credits are “Driving Miss Daisy,” with James Earl Jones, “The Scarlet Pimpernel,” “Damn Yankees,” with Jerry Lewis, and “42nd Street.”
Still in Love with You
“Still In Love With You, A Tribute to Audrey and Hank Williams, Sr.” — written by Randy Noojin and directed by Charlotte Tiencken — will come just in advance of Valentine’s Day, from Feb. 9-11, at the North End Grange Hall.
Based on the book by Lycrecia Williams, this musical memory play follows the story of Hank Williams and his on-again-off-again relationship with his first wife, Audrey. The show features all the amazing songs that Hank wrote and sang during his turbulent life and career.
Vashon’s own Jennifer Potter and Jon Whalen will breathe life and song into the couple’s passionate liaison.
Kissing the Joy as it Flies
A revival of “Kissing the Joy as It Flies, The Words of Brian Doyle,” adapted by islanders Mike and Gerry Feinstein and also directed by Tiencken, will be staged March 22-24, at VCA.
The show is a revival — the Feinsteins first unveiled this much-praised production on Vashon in 2019.
Starring Kat Eggleston, Cate O’Cane, Jeanne Dougherty, David Mielke, and Paul Shapiro, the show is centered around the moving, comic, and insightful words of the revered Northwest author Brian Doyle, who published more than a dozen books and countless essays before he died of a brain tumor in 2017.
His work is renowned for elevating “the little things” of life into profundity.
Tickets for Vashon Repertory Theatre’s 2023-2024 season go on sale September 5 — all are general admission tickets, ranging in price from $18 to $25. Pay-what-you-will tickets, if available, will be available at the door for each of the shows. For more information, and to purchase tickets, visit vashonrepertorytheatre.com or vashoncenterforthearts.org, for shows including “It’s Vashon Isle,” which will be presented at VCA.
