Quality theater on Whidbey? Believe the rumors.
Elizabeth Herbert
Elizabeth Herbert is a busy bee.
Bouncing from production to production, the prodigiously-talented South Whidbey resident could be referred to as an actress/writer/director/acting coach, but that would miss out on about 23 other jobs she’s had in the worlds of theater and TV.
After directing City of Angels at the Whidbey Island Center for the Arts in 2014, Herbert spent a year working on a show in Las Vegas.
Between then and now, she penned a full-length comedy which became a finalist in a New York competition and worked with daughter Chelsea Randall on a children’s TV show.
Herbert worked as an acting coach on the pirate-themed musical The Adventures of Captain Callie, which Randall created and wrote for WhidbeyTV.
In the near future, Herbert plans to direct a pair of one-act plays, teach summer acting classes and mount a production of To Kill a Mockingbird at the Driftwood Playhouse in Edmonds.
Oh, and she’s also currently writing a sitcom.
Somehow, in the middle of the hurricane, Herbert has carved out time to direct the Neil Simon farce Rumors, which runs at WICA Mar. 31-Apr. 15.
The play, which ran 535 performances on Broadway in the late ’80s, winning a Tony for Christine Baranski, is set at an anniversary dinner party.
Things quickly fall apart as gunshots, a car accident and much verbal back-stabbing replace dinner as everyone’s focus.
Herbert has long wanted to bring the play to vibrant life.
“I proposed Rumors to WICA a few years ago, before we entered the surreal world in which we are currently living,” Herbert said. “It was a funny play written by a favorite playwright of mine, Neil Simon; it was also a farce, which I love to direct.”
Farce uses an emphasis on characters taking themselves over seriously, intensified body energy and big/wild characterizations, which makes it even more appropriate in the cracked world we currently inhabit.
“Timing is everything,” Herbert said. “Now you can see how RELEVANT this silly, funny play has become.”
The cast for the production includes:
Brian Burroughs
Jim Carroll
Gail Liston
David Mayer
Christina Parker
Megan Parker
Nicole Parnell
Brian Plebanek
Kathy Stanley
Ken Stephens
For ticket info, pop over to:
https://www.wicaonline.org/events-calendar-view/2017/3/31/rumors
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