Island theater-goers who like their entertainment served with a side of goosebumps are in for a treat this weekend.
Drama Dock is gearing up to present two one-act plays, “The Veldt” and “Kaleidoscope,” by Ray Bradbury, the 89-year-old American writer.
Patricia Kelly, an accomplished theater artist who is making her Drama Dock directorial debut with the shows, described Bradbury’s work as “poetic fantasy.”
“I found these plays about five years ago, after being a Ray Bradbury fan for many years,” Kelly said.
The author, best known for the novel “Fahrenheit 451” and his short story anthology “The Illustrated Man,” has penned more than 30 books, 600 short stories and numerous poems, essays and plays.
“The Veldt” and “Kaleidoscope” were both written as short stories by Bradbury in the 1950s. In the 1970s, he adapted them into plays.
“The Veldt” — an uncannily prescient drama for its time — is a cautionary tale about how “virtual reality” can tear away at the fabric of family life. The play tells the story of a well-meaning mother and father who reap horrific results when they delegate much of their child-rearing duties to futuristic, time-saving gizmos that fill their house.
“It’s so relevant to today,” Kelly said. “Sixty years ago, Ray Bradbury was predicting how technology would impact us in a negative way, and when we think about kids plugged into video games and cell phones, it’s all come true.”
Kelly said she had enjoyed working with Molly Mazor-Brown, 12, and Adam Westerman, 13, who appear in “The Veldt” as the brother and sister who become disconnected with reality after spending too much time in their state-of-the-art playroom.
“They’ve been amazing to work with, and they really capture the transformation from innocent to robotical characters,” she said.
The cast of “The Veldt” also includes Dianna Ammon, Kirk Beeler, Michael Fitzgerald and Gordon Millar.
Kelly also sang the praises of the all-women ensemble — Dianna Ammon, Jill Bulow, Sue DeNies, Antonia Greene, Maya Krah, Gretchen Neffenger and Mary Kay Rauma — of “Kaleidoscope,” a play that is set deep in outer space.
“They are the best women on the Island,” she said.
Kelly doesn’t take credit for coming up with the idea of casting women in roles more typically assigned to men. In fact, she explained that when Bradbury wrote the play — in a time when there were no female astronauts — he noted the roles could be played by either men or women.
She called the play “a haunting and brutally honest tale of what happens when someone knows they have only hours of life left.”
With most of the action taking place as the astronauts drift in space, awaiting certain death after an explosion blows apart their spaceship, “Kaleidoscope” has significant staging and technical challenges.
Chris Overstreet has designed music and sounds that help tell the story, and Phil Dunn has contributed lighting design that eerily spotlights each cast member. Space helmets for the cast were designed by Rob Synder.
Kelly said audiences shouldn’t expect the show to be typical Drama Dock fare.
“It’s not traditional theatre, it’s more experimental,” she said. “That’s what was attractive about it. It’s very different from anything we’re producing this year.”
The evening will also have a multimedia element, with short documentary videos that feature talks by Bradbury appearing before each play.
“I want people to get a sense of who he was and his process,” Kelly said.
”The Veldt” and “Kaleidoscope” will be performed at 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, Oct. 22 through 24, and 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 25, at Vashon High School. Tickets, $8 to $10, are on sale at Vashon Bookshop, Books by the Way and the door. Due to content and some intense effects, parental guidance is suggested for children younger than 10.
