Kitsap Sun Preview, July 15, 2013, by Michael Moore

BREMERTON — Craig Schieber sees dead people ... as a resource.

The Mountaineers Players director puts ’em to work.

“We’ve certainly had some experience here recently with ghosts,” said Schieber, who directed the Mountaineers recent production of “Fiddler on the Roof” (funny ghosts), and currently is prepping “The Secret Garden” (melancholy ghosts), both at the al fresco Kitsap Forest Theater.

“The ghosts become the walls, they become part of the scenery,” said Schieber. “We take them and make them functional.”

And it doesn’t stop with ghosts, either. If you’re in an ensemble, you’re conscripted, either to move set pieces, or to actually be set pieces.

“One of the rules I have is to never have an empty stage,” said Schieber, who directs at least one of the Mountaineers’ two annual productions at the bucolic amphitheater carved out of a hillside nestled among blooming rhododendrons and hulking evergreens. “When we use the chorus (and in this case the ghosts) like that, it really helps us keep things moving, and not have any of those dead spots.”

The set this time — both the ghostly and non-ghostly aspects of it — is being handled by Barbara Klingberg, well known around Kitsap more for her costuming wizardry. But the former Broadway costumer, who’s now a Bainbridge-based architect, told Schieber she had wanted to do a set for a long time.

“It makes a lot of sense, actually,” Schieber said of Klingberg, who also acts on occasion and has whipped up the costumes for productions at Ovation! Musical Theatre Bainbridge and Bainbridge Performing Arts in addition to her work for the Mountaineers. “The two things work so closely together, she would want to have her eye on both of them.”

The cast is pretty Kitsap-centric, compared to the Mountaineers’ normally Seattle-dominated companies. It includes Eric Emans, who was in KFT’s “Robin Hood” several years ago, and has appeared on several other Kitsap stages since, as Neville Craven; Sara Henley-Hicks, a regular at Port Orchard’s Western Washington Center for the Arts before beginning her college studies at Cornish, as Lily; Carl Olson, a venerable actor and director around Kitsap, in two supporting roles; and Cymbeline Brody, a recent addition to the BPA company, as Colin.

The “Secret Garden” role is Brody’s third (after BPA’s “Tommy” and “Distracted” last season) that calls for the seventh-grader to play against gender.

As Mary Lennox, the little orphan who’s relocated from India to England to live with her distant uncle, Schieber has Jasmine Harrick, who’s fresh from KFT’s spring production of “Narnia,” in which she played Lucy Pevensie.

The cast also includes first-time Mountaineer Stephen Jones, a Seattle Opera veteran who’ll play Archibald Craven; Adrienne Easton as Mrs. Medlock; Tristan Carruthers as Dickon; and Britt Boyd as Martha.

Boyd might qualify for some kind of “extra-mile” award for her work in the show.

“She’s missing her sister’s wedding to be here,” Schieber said of the Seattle actress. “She’ll get to go to all the other pre-wedding stuff, like the bachelorette party, but then we open. She really wanted to be in the show; she’s played Mary in two other productions.”

Choreography is by Schieber’s longtime KFT ally, Guy Caridi, and musical direction is by Julia Thornton, doing her first work with the company after working with Schieber last year on a production of “Cinderella” at the Snoqualmie Falls amthitheater. Her singers will be backed by keyboardist Greg Smith.

The ghosts in Lucy Simon and Marsha Norman’s musical, adapted from the beloved children’s book by Frances Hodgson Burnett, are most of the people Mary knew in India, before they were wiped out by a cholera epidemic. She’s sent to live with an uncle she’s never met, in a manor that boasts some ghosts of its own. Both Craven brothers are mourning Archibald’s long-dead wife, Lily, who haunts the place and tortures them both.

Meanwhile, Mary sets about transforming the place — and the people in it — from gloomy to giddy, enlisting the help of her maid, the gardener and her bedridden cousin to help her cheer things up.

The show is fairly new. It made its Broadway debut in 1991, earning Norman a Tony Award for Best Book, and didn’t open on London’s West End until 2001. It’s been done locally twice in recent years — at BPA in 2008, and CSTOCK in ’07.

Read more: http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2013/jul/15/no-headline---kt_secret_garden_071913/#ixzz2ZS8w1GE0

The Mountaineers received grant money for upgrades on the Kitsap Forest Theater property (thanks to the Kitsap Branch and the Mountaineers Foundation for the funding). New signage on the property was one of our projects. Thanks to Mountaineers Players' volunteers Gardner Hicks, Scott Baker and Steve Bozorth for help in putting the signs in place, and thanks to Alvord Signs for the beautiful signs. 

We now have a better sign at the trailhead to identify the trail going down to the theater and to post information for visitors to the property.

As with all of our projects, it takes volunteers to make it happen. From digging holes to trimming wood to buying supplies, we rely on a village of worker bees to keep this property running.

We would like to eventually sign every building with new signs when we have new funding.

If you would like to join the legion of volunteers who work on the property (all skill levels desired) please contact us with your interest and availability – we would love to "put you to work" helping to preserve this amazing property for future generations! Not only will you meet new friends, get exercise, enjoy the out-of-doors – you will also be supporting a worthy 501(c)3 non-profit organization whose goal is to see more people get outside and enjoy the forest and streams of the Pacific Northwest.

Come to Narnia at the Kitsap Forest Theater!

Here is Michael Moore's review from the Kitsap Sun:

Solid storytelling and tremendous singing trump the rain at Forest Theater

BREMERTON — I was a little worried, as it became evident that the drenching rain wasn’t going away any time during the Mountaineers Players’ Memorial Day performance of “Narnia,” that I’d have to make some allowances for the miserable conditions, in compensation for the cold and wet and mud that director Jenny Estill’s cast was obliged to work through.

I needn’t have worried at all. Conditions were indeed dreadful, but you wouldn’t have known it to watch and listen to what turned out to be a spirited, sprightly and altogether enjoyable show.

Well, enjoyable as anything can be viewed from a relentless, sopping downpour that kept the May 27 attendance down to about 100 hearty, umbrella-brandishing souls.

Despite the wet, though, the Mountaineers didn’t miss a beat. The show was sung and acted just about as well as you might have hoped for had it had been sunny and 70.

The show follows the major plot points of C.S. Lewis’ “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” — the first of his “Chronicles of Narnia.” The story — siblings find fantastical kingdom by climbing through the back of a piece of bedroom furniture and are embroiled in a power struggle between the rightful king, a lion, and a cold-hearted witch — is prodded along pretty nicely by the songs by Thomas Tierney (music) and Ted Drachman (lyrics), ranging from finger-popping swing to big, anthemic productions.

Estill’s production is paced tremendously; there’s nary a dull moment, even though the book (by Jules Tasca) can seem a mite episodic. Multiple-keyboard accompaniment by Greg Smith is orchestrally rich and dramatic, the choreography by Lynda Sue Welch keeps everyone — even the cast’s passel of adorable youngsters — in constant and appropriate motion, and the reliably delightful costumes by Barbara Klingberg cover all the show’s bases, from bunny-and-puppy cuteness to White Witch wicked. Fight scenes choreographed by Ken Michels were a bit deliberate, but still a lot of clanky fun, right down to Peter Pevensie’s (Jake Friang) full-on roll across the muddy stage during one set-to with Fenris Ulf (David Cravens-O’Farrell).

But the standout aspect of the show to me is its vocal richness — especially impressive given the soggy conditions. Everyone in the cast, it seems, can sing, and the individual and corporate work they do merits a tip-o’-the-hat to music director Amy Beth Nolte.

The biggest voices belong to Dave Holden as Aslan, the lion who helps the four Pevensie children find their destiny, and Jenny Dreessen as the White Witch, who would gladly skewer them all to keep Narnia in a perpetual state of “always winter, never Christmas.”

But there’s plenty of depth, even among the youngsters. All four Pevensies — Friang, Katie Dreessen as Susan, a particularly impressive Daniel Geiszler as Edmund and Jasmine Harrick as Lucy — all are in fine voice, and many impress in smaller roles. (Kudos also to Kelsie Engen, who sang tremendously and clowned ably in her role as the the witch’s dwarf minion.) When the whole ensemble cranks up for moments like the inspiring “To Make the World Right Again,” it’s pretty lovely stuff.

The sound in the old amphitheater was surprisingly good, considering the rain spattering against the umbrellas throughout. There were some lines of dialog that were difficult to hear, but not that many.

I’m tempted now to go back and see “Narnia” again before the end of its June 16 run. After all, if it could be as charming, vocally impressive and just plain fun as it was, played out in ankle-deep mud, it might be even more of a hoot on a warm, sunny afternoon.

But not much.