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Long-awaited play takes the distanced stage

Jenny Neyman/KDLL

Though the Kenai Performers cast “Dancing at Lughnasa” before coronavirus became a ubiquitous term, the show is an unexpectedly good tonal fit for culture during the pandemic.

“Finding joy in a rough time. I’ve always really enjoyed the Irish mentality of storytelling where you have humor and sadness in the same story and it somehow fits,” said Ian McEwen, who is directing the Kenai Performers production of “Dancing at Lughnasa,” which opens tonight at the performers’ space behind Subway on Kalifornsky Beach Road.

McEwen cast the show in January and it was supposed to be staged in May. But then, of course, came COVID-19. The cast switched to Zoom rehearsals for a couple of months, which was not ideal in many regards, but helpful in others.

“Rehearsal over Zoom really just turned into more of a line reading,” McEwen said. “Every time we would do about half the show at a time. And one of the biggest parts of Zoom was just to keep the actors in the script and to keep that connection. And because we ended up being kind of our own little group, trying to stay in your own little unit because of this, we grew into such a tight group that it really added to the family aspect of the show. So, oddly enough, it helped the performances.”

 

The play is told from the perspective of narrator Michael Evans, remembering events of his 7-year-old life in the cottage of the five Mundy sisters, set in a rural village in County Donegal, Ireland, in 1936. Michael’s mother, Christina, is heartsick for the return of Michael’s charming yet unreliable father, Gerry. The other four Mundy sisters are also unmarried and eking out a difficult existence in poverty. Eldest brother Jack, a Catholic priest, is sent home after 25 years as a missionary in Uganda. His memory is failing from malaria and his adherence to Catholic strictures seems to have left him, as well.

This is the first live, in-personal, indoor theatrical performance on the Kenai Peninsula since the pandemic hit. Kenai Performers Board of Directors President Rebecca Gilman says they’re taking precautions to keep audiences safe.

“Masks are mandatory. We’ve limited our seating considerably. Normally we can have between 85 to 90 people in that space. And for all our shows this year, we’re doing it at a capacity of 50,” Gilman said.

The actors won’t be wearing masks but the audience will be seated over six feet away and seated by group.

“It is a large space. It’s a warehouse that used to be a gym, so I believe the first row of audience seats is at least 10 feet away from the actual performance space. All tickets have to be purchased online ahead of time, so then we can seat individual households together and keep them 6 feet away from other ones,” Gilman said.

Performances are 7 p.m. tonight, Saturday and next Friday and Saturday, with 2 p.m. matinees this Sunday and next. One of the actors is leaving for school at the end of the month, so it was now or never if they were going to stage the show.

“This show will be a little bit of a test to see what the community interest is in coming to live events, and then we’ll be able to recalibrate, depending on our needs, by the time we reach December,” Gilman said.

Staging an in-person show is an experiment and an attempt to salvage something of the Kenai Performers’ season. They’d initially planned eight shows this year, including their annual big winter musical. Now they’re down to four.

“Murder in the Cathedral” is scheduled to open Dec. 2. It’s a drama by T.S. Eliot, portraying the assassination of Archbishop Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral during the reign of Henry II in 1170.

Gilman will direct a musical version of “Little Women,” performed in February in place of the big community musical.

She’s also directing a one-woman show in the spring called “Grounded.” A fighter pilot unexpectedly gets pregnant and has to go back to work as a drone pilot.

That’s the plan, anyway, if a resurgence of the coronavirus doesn’t upstage the schedule.

“You know, we’re just still trying to provide the entertainment that we can,” Gilman said. “We’re just kind of trying to keep up with everything. We’re looking at what level the schools are at, too, in terms of the red, orange, green (COVID alert level) and stuff, and using that as a barometer for ourselves, too, of, 'Should we be performing, be having any sort of gatherings?'”

For tickets to “Dancing at Lughnasa,” visit kenaiperformers.org.

Jenny Neyman has been the general manager of KDLL since 2017. Before that she was a reporter and the Morning Edition host at KDLL.
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