4 // COASTWEEKEND.COM
‘Shanghaied in Astoria’ returns to its roots
With new leadership,
the Astor Street Opry
Company unveils new
visions (and new restrooms)
By HEATHER DOUGLAS
FOR COAST WEEKEND
F
or the 33rd consecutive season, the
Astor Street Opry Company is pre-
senting its regionally famous musical
melodrama “Shanghaied in Astoria.” The
show opens at the company playhouse (129
W. Bond St.) Thursday, July 6.
Based on Astoria history and folklore,
“Shanghaied” is the longest continuously
running musical melodrama in the country.
The company, which performed for many
years in various local venues, found a
permanent home almost a decade ago at its
current location thanks to key players such
as Markus Brown, a company veteran.
Brown will direct the play for the first
time this season. He considers himself a
“student of ‘Shanghaied’”; he has worked
as an actor under several directors for 15
years, and has directed more than a dozen
shows at the theater.
His personal stamp on the show, he
said, will be in bringing the play back to its
original script.
“The story is king,” Brown said. “The
script is quite brilliant, and the story is fan-
tastic. I want to bring it back to its roots.”
Part of keeping “Shanghaied” loyal to
its roots, Brown said, is staying true to the
highly stylized vaudeville melodrama that
is the show’s signature.
“For a number of years, some well-in-
tending directors have been adding modern
touches, easy laughs, elements of pop
culture, but the original story is already full
of good humor,” he said.
“There are very few true vaudeville
theaters left in our country,” he contin-
ued. “True vaudeville is done in a specific
manner — everything from its inflection
and a certain sense of rhythm that makes it
authentic to the style.”
The script for “Shanghaied” was con-
ceived in 1985 by Del Corbet, a former
professor and theater director at Clatsop
Community College, and inspired by Asto-
ria’s sordid history of “shanghaiing” — a
practice in the 1800s in which men would
be kidnapped (often through trap doors
in the floors of local saloons) and find
themselves out to sea as forced labor on a
ship. The story also brings in Astoria’s deep
PHOTOS BY COLIN MURPHEY/THE DAILY ASTORIAN
ABOVE: Markus Brown, director of the latest version of “Shanghaied
in Astoria,” gives instructions to actors during a recent rehearsal.
SHANGHAIED
INASTORIA.COM
Scandinavian heritage.
The script, copyrighted in 1987, result-
ed in the budding theater producing one
show a year. The popularity continued,
and Astor Street Opry Company became a
full theater company performing multiple
shows a year.
Community support
While the company stages other pro-
ductions, “Shanghaied in Astoria” is the
company’s bread and butter, and shows no
signs of declining popularity.
“‘Shanghaied’ is what keeps our doors
open, our lights on and the bills paid,”
Brown said. “It has allowed us to bring
other productions to our theaters.”
For 10 weeks each summer, the stage
becomes home to nasty villains, sturdy
women, ill-intentioned saloon owners,
fishermen and sweethearts. All actors are
volunteers, and the theater has become a
testament to the power of public support.
Besides ticket sales, a supportive com-
munity of local businesses and a devoted
volunteer system have allowed the theater
to survive.
One such volunteer, Bill Carr (nick-
named the “volunteer extraordinaire”),
has been assisting Brown in realizing a
decade-long dream of equipping the
theater with indoor restrooms. For years,
the theater has relied on “blue rooms”
and a tiny restroom shared by all of the
actors.
“Now that we have these new restrooms,
I’d like to take those blue rooms and cata-
pult them into space,” Carr said.
Continued on Page 21