MARCH 23, 2017 // 9
Continued from Pg. 8
Brown is the insecure boy who owns a some-
what intellectual dog Snoopy, has a domineering
friend Lucy, and an unrequited crush on a Little
Red-Haired Girl. Lucy’s younger brother Linus
goes through life clutching his security blanket
while singing about it in songs like “My Blanket
and Me.” Lucy wants to be treated like a queen
and pines for an aloof musician Schroeder, who,
in turn, has a “reverential mission” — he wants
to dedicate a day to Beethoven, “the newest face
on Mount Rushmore,” but insists it mustn’t be
too commercialized.
Far from being stereotypes, the charac-
ters survived the decades, in part, because of
Schultz’s brilliance in layering nuance into their
comic but pithy dialogue. (Many U.S. newspa-
pers continued to rerun his strips years after his
death in 2000.)
The musical was devised in the 1960s and
ran for four years Off-Broadway with a cast of
a half-dozen adult actors. After it became a TV
cartoon, it became a staple in the high school
drama repertoire, featuring a chorus that could
be expanded to allow more student involve-
ment. A 1999 Broadway version, which won the
Drama Desk Award for best revival of a musical
and Tony Awards for two featured actors, boost-
ed its visibility.
The characters fly kites, play baseball and
write book reports about Peter Rabbit in a series
of episodic musical scenes, some completed
in less time than it takes to read a comic-strip
punchline. Lucy doles out advice from a bright
yellow psychiatric advice booth for 5 cents.
Snoopy lays on the roof of his doghouse dream-
ing he is a World War I flying ace chasing the
Red Baron.
“It is very much a family musical,” said
Smith, who is a retired elementary school
teacher. “It’s done in a lot of high schools and
community theater. It’s kind of neat to have
mature people playing these parts.”
Mature has many definitions.
Just about all the cast members who gathered
before an early rehearsal to share their stories
admitted they are just “big kids.” Some even
bragged about it.
“I am kind of a kid and joke around a lot,”
said Scherrer, 55, a tall, bald fellow with a
persistent goofy grin whose confident singing
voice fills the theater. His performing talent
developed with high school experience, swing
choirs and singing as an adult with folk groups
and in church. “I have sung all my life,” added
Scherrer, who had a long career in the grocery
business.
His employer, John Adams, moved to Wash-
ington’s Long Beach Peninsula in 1999 where
he and his wife, Diana Thompson, operate
Harmony SoapWorks, a business that creates
and ships products as far away as Japan.
As director Smith’s next-door neighbor on
the northern Peninsula, Adams was inevitably
lured in. “I started in the chorus, and I was
‘YOU’RE A GOOD MAN,
CHARLIE BROWN’
7 p.m. March 24, 25, 31, April 1, 7
and l 8
2 p.m. March 26, April 2 and 9
River City Playhouse
127 Lake St., Ilwaco, Washington
There will be a champagne recep-
tion at 6:15 p.m. on opening night,
March 24.
Tickets are $15 for adults and $10 for
children 12 and under, and are avail-
able at Okies’ Thriftway in Ocean
Park, Washington, Stormin’ Nor-
man’s in Long Beach, Washington,
and Olde Towne Café in Ilwaco. Call
360-665-0028 for will-call tickets to
be picked up at the theater. Tickets
will be sold at the door, if available.
hooked,” said Adams, who has played Merlin in
“Camelot” and the much-sought-after role of the
sadistic dentist in “Little Shop of Horrors.” “It’s
a bit of a joke around here that my characters all
get killed off.”
Now 65, he is cast as Linus, complete with
his go-everywhere security blanket. “He’s kind
of a philosopher with a little bit of a deeper
meaning, although his older sister, Lucy, terri-
fies him,” said Adams, one of two actors who
shaved off their beards to play the kids’ roles.
The cast and crew of “Charlie Brown”
double as behind-the-scenes helpers and board
members for the Peninsula Players. Scherrer
plays the title role and has just been named the
group’s president; director Smith used to be in
charge of membership recruitment and has just
become vice president. Penny Bierly, who plays
Pigpen, is the board secretary.
Another key leader, Melissa Goldberg, who
plays the crabby Lucy, is serving as producer
for the first time. She admits she is greatly aided
by game plans provided by prior producers. A
significant part of that duty involves coaxing
other people, during visits to the senior center
or elsewhere, to perform tasks like painting the
Bette Lu Krause playing Sally, center, dances and
sings with others characters during a rehearsal.
brightly colored sets, organizing reader boards,
or doing hair and makeup. “I am scavenging the
neighborhood for help,” she said.
The group is eager for new blood, onstage
and off, and is looking for someone with me-
chanical skills — and available time — who can
better maintain their building, which 10-year
member, writer-director and publicist Joe Pa-
liani, calls an “intimate, wonderful, tiny place.”
The genesis of the Peninsula Players fol-
lowed a common story with community theater.
Someone places a meeting invitation in a news-
paper or newsletter inviting anyone interested in
putting on a play. Those who show up become
lifelong friends, creating a group that is re-
freshed with newcomers when careers or health
issues cause some to move or lose interest.
Wilma Vardsveen wrote that notice, and the
meeting was at the fire station in Ocean Park,
Washington, in 2004; a talent show the follow-
ing year was the impetus for a group to form.
Momentum took hold.
Fast-forward 12 years, and the troupe
appears to be thriving with a core of actors and
directors, including a handful of original mem-
bers. Several stalwarts joined in after attending
the group’s first few shows. Paliani even wrote
his first play and learned to direct, a change of
pace for the retired government investigator.
The players produce an annual season,
including a musical, a murder mystery and a
late-summer opportunity to showcase local one-
act play-writing talent. Recent larger produc-
tions have included “Camelot,” “Little Shop of
Horrors” and “Mame.”
After the annoyance of having to secure a
location for each production, a home base was
established in 2010 when the River City Arts
and Crafts gave them the old American Legion
hall, a blue building opposite the Ilwaco Post
Office. The group has staged many shows since,
some in partnership with Ocean Park Lutheran
Church. The theater features a raised stage with
a backstage area, a large room for the audience
with space for serving refreshments, plus a
raised mezzanine suitable for lights. A black and
gold banner above the entrance is surrounded
by photos and programs from past shows. It
proclaims: “12th Anniversary: Peninsula Players
Congratulations.”
It’s all amateur. Other than applause, the only
paycheck is happiness — the title of the final
song before the curtain call in “Charlie Brown.”
Scherrer, who sings parts of it, acknowledges
many rewards from the time spent. “You get
cast in the show, and it’s a major commitment
of time,” he said. “For the musical, it’s the worst
time of year with the weather, but we are in
the warm, with friends, all having a good time.
Only two hours and we are done, and then we
are looking forward to the next time.”
Similarly, Rose Power savors her latest role
as the tomboy Peppermint Patty. “I was pain-
fully shy as a kid,” she said, her English-New
Zealand accent more pronounced with her
excitement. “I thought I would rather have a
root canal than appear on the stage. Then I got a
small part in ‘Annie Get Your Gun.’ I found out
I could pretend to be someone else. It’s a lot of
fun playing bad people, or scaring people, even
vamping as a French maid — you become a
whole different character.”
When her husband, George, died five years
ago, she discovered a new support system.
“This is my new family — people on the coast I
can have a good time with.”
The animal characters are played by the
cast’s youngest two actors. Snoopy is Matthew
Warner, an Ilwaco High School senior, and
Woodstock, his bird pal, is played by 8-year-old
Keith Clarson, whose mother, Ayu Clarson,
plays Violet, an enthusiastic member of the
chorus. Other actors are Kevin Perry as Schro-
eder, Bette Lu Krause as Charlie Brown’s sister
Sally, Russ Jones as Shermy and Joyce Jones as
Marcie.
Warner embraces the opportunity that
community theater offers for an older teenager
to bond as equals with people who are consider-
ably older than he is. “These actors have a child
inside them — in fact, these people are more
childlike than some of the people at my high
school,” he said.
He has appeared in “Camelot,” one-act plays
with the group, plus numerous school produc-
tions. He clearly has the acting bug and shows
no surprise about being asked how be approach-
es the challenge of portraying such a famous
canine. “I like dogs. It’s kind of easy for me to
play one. I bark a lot and sing,” he said. “He is a
lot more grown up than the children.”
As the likable dog who wants to make
mealtimes “a joyous occasion,” Warner moves
effortlessly across the stage during rehearsal,
with Clarson fluttering behind him, both sets of
eyes glued on Smith as she directs their actions.
Smith hopes the show will delight children,
yet appeal to adult audiences, too. “There’s a
lot of adult humor in it. One line from the play
is, ‘The past has always interested people. . . . I
don’t know much about it. I wasn’t here when it
happened!’”