10 // COASTWEEKEND.COM
The Peninsula Association of Performing Artists brings the
comedy musical ‘Once Upon a Mattress’ to its summer stage
Story by MARILYN GILBAUGH
Photos by DANNY MILLER
feisty girl,
a mama’s
boy with
an over-
bearing
mother,
and an
itty bitty
pea — the
popular
reality television show “The Bach-
elor” doesn’t hold a candle to this
tall tale. This summer the Peninsula
Association of Performing Artists
is set to delight audiences with
“Once Upon a Mattress,” a mad-
cap musical take on Hans Christian
Andersen’s fairy tale “The Princess
and the Pea.“
Fall under the spell of make-be-
lieve from July 8 through Aug. 7,
a ive-week run for the nonproit
theater troupe, with performances
Friday and Saturday evenings at 7
p.m. and Sunday afternoons at 2
p.m.
The theater’s location is a scene
stealer itself. Situated in a wood-
ed wonderland, it sits high on the
rocky promontory of Washington’s
593-acre Fort Columbia State
Park overlooking the mouth of
the Columbia River. The former
World War II military center, which
started being used as a theater in
1930, may be a little off the mark
of a 10th-century medieval setting,
but it’s easy to make a leap of faith
and envision a long-ago magical
kingdom.
PAPA preparation for the
summer show began in April when
the cast and crew started gathering
to learn lines, block scenes and
rehearse dance numbers. As with
other PAPA productions, prelimi-
nary rehearsals for “Once Upon a
Mattress” took place at PAPA pres-
ident Cindy Flood’s Flood Farm
Bed and Barn on the Long Beach
‘ONCE UPON A
MATTRESS’
“Performers act during dress rehearsal for “Once Upon a Mattress.”
Prince Dauntless, played by Ron Thompson, swings Princess Winnifred,
played by Brooke Brown, in a dancing scene in “One Upon a Mattress.”
Peninsula before shifting to the Fort
Columbia stage. The Flood Farm
Bed and Barn is a several-acre
wooded setting bordering Loomis
Lake that could easily lend itself to
its own magical storyline.
“Once Upon a Mattress” is
the classic tale of royal courtship
7 p.m. Friday and Satur-
day, July 8, 9, 15, 16, 22,
23, 29, 30, Aug. 5 and 6
2 p.m. Sunday, July 10,
17, 24, 31 and Aug. 7
Fort Columbia Theater
Chinook, Washington
papatheater.com
Tickets also available at
Okie’s Thriftway Market
in Ocean Park by cash
or check
$20 or $17 for adults,
$10 or $7 for children
A Discover Pass is not
required to park for the
show
turned topsy-turvy via a tight,
fast-paced and often laugh-out-loud
funny script.
Multi-talented Long Beach
Peninsula legend Barbara Poul-
shock directs the show. During
rehearsals she is seated royally on
an overstuffed chair. The adoring
and appreciative cast is at her beck
and call — her own bunch of ladies
in waiting, so to speak.
“Musicals aren’t great because
they have great actors in them; mu-
sicals are great because they have
the ability to coax the greatness out
of the actors,” said Megan Fech-
ter, PAPA’s director of marketing.
“Barbara Poulshock, for example,
inds what makes the actors tick.
She knows exactly what to say to
get them to hit the mark. Something
like, ‘Pretend it’s a soap opera,
people.’ She can see the emotion
more or less that’s needed and how
to draw it out, often from real life
experiences.”
On an 8.5-by-11-inch yellow
notepad balanced on her lap,
Poulshock is constantly making
notes that, if she can decipher her
own handwriting (her words), she
will share with the cast during their
break.
“Just a little more movement,
but not too much,” she tells one
actor.
“Slower,” she offers to another.
“Add a little more excitement, a
little more fun to your lines — but
that will happen when you play to
an audience,” Poulshock coaches.
This play is rumored to be one
of her favorites. And that’s saying
a lot. At 89, Poulshock has, over
her decades-long career, directed a
multitude of musicals and more.
“During our performances,
there are no prompts. You mem-
orize your lines backward and
forward, or you make something
up,” said longtime PAPA veteran
Brook Brown, who plays Princess
Winnifred the Woebegone in the
musical. “If you accidentally drop
a hanky or a button, you make it a
part of the play.”
The storyline to “Once Upon a
Mattress” in a nutshell — or should
that read pea pod? — centers
around a royal family. It includes
Queen Aggravain, played by Cindy
Flood: a mother, wife and a way-
too-bossy queen with a mean streak
(think helicopter parenting to the
max). Queen Aggravain’s kind but
mute and curse-ridden husband is
King Sextimus the Silent, played
by Jonathan Cole. King Sextimus is
unable to speak due to an evil curse
that can be lifted only when “a