Moby-Dick, or the Whale
Vashon Center for the Arts
Friday, October 16- 7:30pm
Saturday, October 17- 2pm and 7:30pm
Sunday, October 18- 2pm with post-performance discussion
Vashon Rep Takes On A Whale of A Tale
In 2009 veteran actor/director/playwright David Quicksall premiered his adaptation of Herman Melville’s seminal novel, Moby-Dick, or The Whale into a play for Book-It Repertory Theatre. After nearly 20 years, Vashon Repertory Theatre (VRT) is reviving the play on the stage of Vashon Center for the Arts (VCA).
“It all started when VCAs Executive Director asked me if I had a play about a whale,” said VRTs producing artistic director Charlotte Tiencken. Her answer, “The only whale play I know is Moby Dick, and I know the playwright.”
VCA was about to mount the mobile skeleton of a whale -- Springer – in their atrium, and ED Allison Reid wanted a stage production equal to the Vashon community’s achievement of assembling the whale bones to suspend from the Center’s ceiling.
Springer’s skeleton is mounted and undulating in the rafters of Vashon Center for the Arts’ atrium and VRT will stage Moby-Dick, or The Whale October 16 through 18 on the Center’s mainstage.
Adapter David Quicksall will direct the play for VRT, with a hand-picked cast led by Seattle legend Charles Leggett as Captain Ahab. In the seven years it took to adapt the epic tale from Melville’s massive novel, Quicksall became a scholar of the times and of Melville himself. “There is far more to this book than a simple action adventure about a bunch of guys hunting down a big fish,” Quicksall notes. “What’s often lost is the book’s inward journey. It took me eight drafts of the script to find those deep places –-the lower levels Melville called them.”
The diverse cast of 14 professional actors is currently in daily rehearsals. The set, designed by Robin McCartney, will fill the VCA stage with the ill-fated Pequod and chill the audience with images of the great white whale. Prop master Patti Curtis Hair is assembling seafaring artifacts from the time including an antique ship’s bell. Lighting is covered by Robin Nettles and sound by Nathan Wade. With costumes by Jocelyne Fowler and fight choreography by Jace Tucker, audiences will be transported to 1850 when Melville’s characters were consumed by Ahab’s obsession with the great white whale that took his leg.
The performance schedule at Vashon Center for the Arts is: Opening Night- Friday, October 16, 7:30pm; Saturday, October 17, 2pm and 7:30pm; Sunday, October 18, 2pm. A discussion will follow the Sunday matinee
Tickets are available now at https://events.humanitix.com/moby-dick.
About Vashon Repertory Theatre: Vashon Repertory Theatre produces thought-provoking, intimate, story-driven theatre that brings to light issues meaningful to our time and place on Earth. We aim to be known throughout the Puget Sound region for creating excellent theatre that is inclusive and breaks down barriers of race and gender. In our programming and our engagement, Vashon Repertory Theatre strives to make a difference in our community and the world.