“Shoestring Theatre” fosters actors’ comedic improv skills

Sanders, the director of “Cinderella,” has been insulted. He thinks the director of the theater, Mrs. Brakes, has embezzled the show’s budget to spend on a Caribbean cruise for herself and her assistant Bonnie.

Outraged, Sanders rounds up a bunch of non-actors and puts on a low-budget play. The props are cardboard boxes and Cinderella’s carriage is a toy wagon.

Sanders and his cast of odd “actors” are in fact the characters in Eddie McPherson’s “Shoestring Theatre,” a comedy which Klahowya Secondary School is staging for its third show of the year.

“Wizard of Oz was such a huge production so I wanted to do something simple because I knew we’d be spent,” director Pamela Wright said.

So, Wright acquired a few gallons of paint and some beach balls and pickleballs (for decorating the ballroom gowns), and recycled the set from the largest musical Klahowya has ever put on — last winter’s aforementioned “The Wizard of Oz.”

“It’s definitely a ‘Shoestring’ on a shoestring budget as well,” Wright said.

“Shoestring Theatre” is in two acts and the props for the second are just the type that Sanders uses for his on-the-cheap “Cinderella.” But in the first act the story takes place in Mrs. Brakes’ theater, therefore using the modified “Wizard of Oz” set.

In addition to the economical stage designs, “Shoestring Theatre” gave the Klahowya troupe a freedom that most of the actors were not used to enjoying. The script allows for a lot of flexibility, Wright said.

That’s junior Chris Peeler’s favorite feature of the play. Peeler, who played the Lion in the “Wizard of Oz,” says he prefers comedy above all other genres, because they allow an actor to “let go, improvise a little bit and get the timing right.”

Peeler plays Brutus, a New York truck driver who has a moving company with three employees. Brutus becomes Prince Charming in Sanders’ rebellious rendition of “Cinderella.”

Comedy is rhythm, Peeler said, and Brutus and his crew are the comedic relief within the play. The fairly loose script and stage directions give them “a chance to get a little bit more creative than with most shows.”

An added challenge for many of the actors in “Shoestring Theatre” is that their characters are Cinderella actors, too.

“What? You want me on stage? But I’ve never acted before in my life!” exclaims Brutus when Sanders first suggests including him in the “Cinderella” production.

Brutus was nervous.

Peeler wasn’t.

An already experienced actor with nine performances on his resumé, Peeler said he simply adjusted Brutus’ attitude a bit when Brutus played Prince Charming.

“Being the prince, I figured why not get a little arrogant, a little cocky,” Peeler said.

Both facets of Brutus’ rendition of the prince were not specified in the script, but were Peeler’s interpretation.

Wright said the play-within-a-play setting has been more difficult for some.

“What I’ve been telling them is you have a split personality,” she said. “It’s been challenging even for the kids who’ve never acted before. They want to try really, really hard and I won’t let them.”

Senior Kasia Alexander had fun developing her double-character. There were no specific instructions to make her character be a poor actor as the evil stepmother in “Cinderella” so Alexander made her caterer, Chrissy, a good actress.

“It’s kind of like being bipolar,” Alexander explained.

In the first part of the show Chrissy is ditzy but “in the second act I’m totally cruel and awful,” Alexander said.

“It’s kind of interesting for character development to get both of those in one play,” she added.

Alexander, who’s in her seventh production, said the challenge of two characters-in-one in “Shoe-string Theatre” has been valuable experience for she wants to continue her studies and major in theater when she attends Western Washington University in the fall.

As the last play in the school year, this production has been most challenging from a time-management perspective, Wright said. For seniors like Alexander spring is crunch time for scholarship applications.

Peeler, too, has had a full plate with Advanced Placement tests, managing the school newspaper and singing in choir.

But the committed cast and crew have no regrets, except maybe missing out on the sunny weather when staying after school for rehearsals for nearly two months.

“It’s hard not to be able to go home and go swimming,” Alexander said.

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