Starting Friday, the Centralia College Theatre and the Associated Students of Centralia College will begin presenting live performances of “Holiday,” a romantic comedy written by Philip Barry in 1928, at the college’s Wickstrom Studio Theatre.
Tickets to the play are currently on sale online for $12 each, with shows on Friday, Feb. 27, Saturday, Feb. 28, Friday, March 6, and Saturday, March 7, starting at 7 p.m. A pair of Sunday matinee performances will begin at 2 p.m. on March 1 and March 8.
“Holiday” is the second play of the Centralia College Theatre’s Centennial Season, in which all three plays are being sourced from the 1920s. In the play program’s notes, Producer Emmy Kreilkamp explained the reason for this was “all three plays portray the remarkable period of American history and drama that was the 1920s.”
“While the era is known for its tycoons who amassed extreme wealth, many Americans struggled to make ends meet, living in tenement houses in poverty and squalor,” Kreilkamp said. “While prohibition was still in place, speakeasies were plentiful, with bootleggers were running rum to gin joints across the country. And while (the) stock market was at its peak, all of that was about to change when it crashed and ushered in the Great Depression.”
“Holiday” tells the story of Johnny Case, a corporate Wall Street lawyer who falls in love with Julia Seton after the two meet on vacation. Case hopes to retire early — an idea that doesn’t sit well with Seton’s father.
“It was a contemporary story of a self-made man introduced to the world of the wealthy who must decide which path he is to follow; the pursuit of wealth and power or the pursuit of happiness and self-fulfilment. There are many similarities in American society between the late ‘20s and today,” Director John Olive stated in the play program’s director notes. “The growing divide between the wealthy and the rest of the world; a move towards isolationism in our politics and growing development of fascism around the world. Prohibition was in place at that time and mobsters created chaos and violence in the streets everywhere. The 1929 stock market crash and the depression were right around the corner.”
The cast, in order of appearance, includes:
• Andrea Gordon, playing Julia Seton
• Rob Duran, playing Henry
• Douglas Morgan, playing Charles
• Isaac DeLarme, playing Johnny Case
• Maribel Ortega, playing Linda Seton
• Riley Meade, playing Delta
• David Locklin, playing Ned Seton
• D. Douglas Lukascik, playing Edward Seton
• Joe Pettit, playing Seton Cram
• Angelina Smith, playing Laura Cram
• Thomas Perkins, playing Nick Potter
• Nicole Galyean, playing Susan Potter
Additionally, working with Kreilkamp and Olive on the play’s production team are Thomas Perkins, technical director; Alex Eades, lighting designer; Derek Wilson, sound designer; Madeline Gwinn, stage manager; Riley Meade, assistant stage manager; Brendan Morrison, graphic design; Drew Burkhardt and Mike Sage, photography; Richard Fitzwater and Rick Perkins, streaming assistance, and Masen Jeg, Braedeb Payne, Kirsten Kifer and Marvic Sandoval on the stage construction crew.
Centralia College Theatre sponsors include Shelley Bannish, Shari Blackwell, Amanda Haines, The Evergreen Playhouse, Olympia Family Theatre, Olympia Little Theatre, Fuji Teriyaki, McMenamin’s Olympic Club, Santa Lucia Coffee and Mountain View CPAs.
To purchase tickets to “Holiday,” visit https://tinyurl.com/5yvuurr3.
The first play of Centralia College Theatre’s Centennial Season was “Machinal” by Sophie Treadwell, and the final one will be “Nice Work … If You Can Get It” by George and Ira Gershwin, scheduled to be performed in May.
For more information, visit the Centralia College Drama Department’s website at https://www.centralia.edu/pathways/arts-humanities/drama.aspx.
