PAGE A4, KEIZERTIMES, SEPTEMBER 29, 2017
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KEIZERTIMES.COM
McNary alumni make directorial debut
By DEREK WILEY
Of the Keizertimes
Jeremy Clubb and Andrea
Bean, two McNary High
School graduates who haven’t
stopped acting, building sets
and playing music, are making
their directorial debut with
Keizer Homegrown Theatre’s
Dog Park, The Musical.
The pair were both heavily
involved in the drama depart-
ment while students at Mc-
Nary, Clubb as an actor and
Bean as a violin player in the
orchestra pit.
After high school, both
acted in shows at Chemeketa
Community College. From
there, Clubb had a minor part
in Keizer Homegrown’s fi rst
musical—I Love You, You’re Per-
fect, Now Change in 2014, then
joined the theatre company’s
board and has been involved in
nearly every show since. Bean
has played violin and conduct-
ed musicals for Pentacle The-
atre in Salem.
Clubb and Bean were rid-
ing back from a show at the
Gallery Theatre in McMin-
nville when the idea of direct-
ing Dog Park came up. Bean
had been asked but didn’t want
to go at it alone.
“I can sing fairly well but
I don’t read music very well,”
Clubb said. “I don’t play any
instruments. I would not be
any help in that regard.”
Bean turned out to be the
perfect partner.
“Since I’m the musical side
and he’s more of the techni-
cal side and the experienced
on stage, putting us together
is kind of a dream team be-
cause where I lack he’s got the
knowledge and vice versa,”
Bean said. “Our ideas just kind
of meld. It’s been really good.”
Dog Park, which debuts in
the Chemeketa Community
College auditorium on Fri-
day, Oct. 6 at 7 p.m., tells the
story of Daisy, a sassy Westie
played by Holly Beaman, who
is encouraged by her owner
to fi nd love at the dog park.
Daisy meets Champ the Col-
lie, a charming but full of him-
self show dog played by Joshua
Seitz, Itchy, a neurotic Jack
Russell terrier played by Bran-
don Correa and Bogie, a mys-
terious loner lab mutt played
by Dennis Fisher.
This unusual quartet make
their way through the day’s
scheduled events which in-
clude Singles With Friends,
Agility Class, Speed Mating,
Yappy Hour and Lovers with
Leashes.
“Finding that person that
you connect the best with,
that’s what this is about,”
Clubb said.
While Daisy does fi nd her
mate, everything doesn’t go as
planned.
“Like every good show you
have some misconception and
plot twists,” Bean said.
The co-directors have add-
ed extra characters to the show
in three purse dogs—Ginger,
played by Hillary Hoover,
Trix, played by Stacia Rice
and Cookie, played by Amber
Traver.
In the original production,
the characters are played by the
three males using puppets. But
when only females showed up
to the original auditions in
January, Bean and Clubb had
to be creative.
“We thought if we have
people that want to be involved,
let’s create that opportunity so
we split out all the drag roles
and created extra characters,”
Bean said. “It’s adding a lot to
the show because you can do
more with those extra people.
Having those three extra dogs,
now you can do a lot more
fun things with choreography
that’s visual. It adds a different
fl air to it.”
Clubb added, “For as much
trouble as we had with casting,
I’m so happy with the cast that
we have right now. They are
very talented people.”
For choreography, Clubb
called in a favor from a for-
mer classmate at Cheme-
keta, Nathaniel Pierce, who
now teaches in New York
City at the American Musical
and Dramatic Academy and
worked on the Tony Award
winning musical Dear Evan
Hansen.
At no charge, Pierce fl ew
out from NYC to start the
choreography before Clubb
and Bean fi nished it.
“We were watching things
that Nate was doing and we
did a bunch of research on
Youtube and I really think it’s
well put together,” Clubb said.
“We built right off of it.”
Louise Biffl e made the cos-
tumes, which includes wigs,
ears, collars and painted noses.
But no tails.
“She’s doing an amazing
job of taking what we had as
ideas,” Bean said. “Turning hu-
mans into dogs, you have to
decide the level that you want
to go with that. We’re not do-
ing Cats. We’re not Wilfred the
dog. We’re somewhere in a
happy medium. There’s some
fur aspects in their costumes
but then they still have the hu-
man side of it.”
Submitted
Andrea Bean and Jeremy Clubb, two McNary High graduates, are directing Keizer Homegrown
Theatre’s Dog Park, The Musical Oct. 6-8, 13-15, 20 and 21 at Chemeketa Community College.
Clubb and Bean have
worked to get the community
and audiences more involved.
Along with face painting in
the lobby, Clyde’s Confections,
a bakery in Salem, is making
doggie treats, to be eaten by
humans, for sale.
Additional shows are Oct.
7, 13, 14, 20, 21 at 7 p.m. and
8 and 15 at 2 p.m. with doors
opening 30 minutes before the
musical. Those in attendance
for the Oct. 7 and 14 shows
will get a special treat as The
Joys of Living Assistance Dogs
will be doing tricks with some
of its dogs during intermission.
“We’re trying things that
haven’t been done with Keizer
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Homegrown before,” Clubb
said.
Willamette Valley Animal
Hospital is one of the spon-
sors the show. McNary thes-
pians have been invited to sell
concessions during the open-
ing weekend, Oct. 6-8, with
Keizer Homegrown donating
a $1 to the MHS drama de-
partment for every ticket sold
at the door.
Tickets are $15 and are
also available online through
Brown Paper Tickets at www.
b row n p a p e r t i c ke t s . c o m /
event/3091639.
The auditorium is located
in Building 6 at Chemeketa
Community College on 4000
Lancaster Dr. NE. Closest
parking is in the purple lot at
the college, easiest to fi nd by
entering campus off of 45th
street and following the signs
to the auditorium.