Daily Sitka Sentinel

Stage Play to Give Sitkans Inside Look at Acting

By Sentinel Staff

A one-act play about theater coming to town is coming to town. 

“The Flattering Word,” a comedy about an actor who has to sell some people on his art form, is the Sitka Community Theater’s spring play.

“It’s about this actor, Eugene Tesh, who comes to town to visit his old crush, and her husband does not like theater and so he’s trying to convince them to like theater,” said “Flattering Word” director Taylor Ciambra.

And of course Eugene does this through flattery, said Destony Rosas, who has a role in the play. 

“The idea is you can tell anybody that they belong on the stage and they will believe it even if they never perform,” she said. 

Rosas plays the character Mrs. Zooker. Zack Desmond plays Eugene and Sally Helm plays Mary Rigley – Eugene’s old flame. Emeterio Hernandez is the Rev. Loring Rigley and Luciano Cannizzario rounds out the cast as Lenny. 

Ciambra studied directing at Keene State College in New Hampshire and fell into the directing role for this play because of Desmond. She said her cast has been engaged throughout the rehearsal process.

“It’s been such a great casting and rehearsal process ... they’re all just so hard-working and dedicated,” Ciambra said. “It’s just been a very relaxing and fun process. They’re thinking, they’re always asking me questions, and that’s what makes a show that everyone is equally a part of.”

Rosas mentioned the collaborative nature of the play. She said the actors have worked with Ciambra to tweak roles, and even cut the age of a character by several decades.

“I think that in the script she was originally around 60 or 70 years old – the script told us that I didn’t have any teeth,” Rosas said. “So we lowered the age to around 30. Basically, Mrs. Zooker is a woman who’s a little unhinged. She winds up believing that she belongs on the stage and then she tries to convince her son that he also belongs on stage.” 

Rosas has been in a number of high school productions as well as the Sitka melodrama, but this is the first time she’s been in community theater and she’s been impressed with Ciambra’s style of direction. 

“I’ve never worked with a director who is, I guess, as spiritual as Taylor is. I actually find that it’s a lot easier working with Taylor than it is working with any director I’ve worked with before. She is so open to what you want to do with your character and she lets us try different things that we’d like to do,” Rosas said. 

“It’s a lot more collaborative and it’s a lot more comfortable.” 

This is also Ciambra’s first time working in community theater. She said she’s actually found the process easier than it was in college when she had a lot more to do than just direct. 

“I have a lot more resources, which is awesome. I’ve never had quite this kind of team behind me in terms of scenic design, costume design and a producer. There’s just a lot fewer things that I have to worry about than when I was doing it all on my own,” she said. “That was a great learning experience but at the same time it’s been great to have other people there to handle a lot of that stuff.” 

Sam Woolsey is Ciambra’s assistant director, Suzan Brawnlyn is handling props, Carole Knuth is the costume designer and Jason Wright is in charge of set design. 

“The Flattering Word” covers aspects of theater that make it more accessible to general audiences while at the same time winking at longstanding aspects of theater culture. Because of that, Ciambra said it’s a great bridge between people who love theater and people who don’t have much experience with it.

“I think that ‘The Flattering Word’ is for people who don’t know much about theater. It’s funny, which helps a lot, and it’s a great play for getting people thinking about theater,” Ciambra said.

The show runs about 45 minutes and is appropriate for all audiences, show representatives said.

This is the fifth full production by Sitka Community Theater, which is a part of the Greater Sitka Arts Council. The community theater stages an annual fundraiser Broadway Night to cover the cost of the rest of the season, which includes a staged radio theater production in the fall, and the more elaborate and costly full spring productions. Last year’s show was “Parfumerie,” a comedy from the 1930s that involved about 15 actors, period costumes and a full set of a perfume shop in Budapest.

While this show has only five actors – and a short running time – this period production in many ways is no less elaborate than those of past years, a show spokesperson said. This year’s show is set inside a parsonage, with the architecture inspired by arts and crafts design, as well as the religious nature of the building. Highlights of this year’s set include a chimney and a rose window, a spokesperson said.

“The Flattering Word” was written by George Kelly, a playwright and screenwriter whose career spanned from the 1920s to the 1940s. In 1925, he won the Pulitzer Prize for “Craig’s Wife.”

The play runs March 27-29 at the Performing Arts Center with shows at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and at 5 p.m. Sunday, the 29th. Tickets are $10 or $8 for students and seniors and will be available at Old Harbor Books and at the door.