JULY 6, 2017 // 11
IF YOU GO
“She Loves Me”
Friday, July 7, through Sunday,
Aug. 6
7 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; 2
p.m. Sundays
Fort Columbia, Chinook (Discover
pass not required for performanc-
es)
475 Washington State Highway
101, Chinook, off Columbia Lane,
on the right as people enter the
park; the theater is in Building No.
14
Tickets available at online at
papatheater.com (Special seating
available online only)
Oakie’s Thrift Way/Ocean Park
Adults $17; children $7
More information about the show
available at papatheater.com and
on Facebook
PHOTOS BY COLIN MURPHEY/THE DAILY ASTORIAN
Actors with the Peninsula Association of Performing Artists rehearse a scene from “She Loves Me.”
Continued from Page 10
a “lonely hearts society,” pouring their feel-
ings out to a secret “Dear Friend” correspon-
dence. Guess who they are writing to?
Back in the shop is all kinds of chaos.
The owner. Mr. Maraczek (Richard
Babikoff) is snipping at Georg. Meanwhile,
love-seeking employee/babe/floozy Ilona
Ritter (Cindy Flood, an association founder)
is having a shaky affair with Steven
Kodaly (Bryan Foster), a silky smooth
cad. He preens; she swoons, for a while
anyway.
In a restaurant scene, a waiter (Jane
Schussman) mixes and muses with patrons.
And then there’s Amalia … waiting anx-
iously, then dejectedly, to meet her “Dear
Friend” at last.
In 2016, the New York Times wrote of
the musical: “‘She Loves Me’ is a sustained
reminder of the pleasures of exalted ordi-
nariness. A tasty tale of love lost and found
in the workplace.”
A play with legs
“She Loves Me” has quite the lineage.
Hungarian Miklos Laszlo wrote the orig-
inal play, “Parfumerie,” which first appeared
on stage in 1937 and has been adapted to
stage and screen ever since. The musical
version first hit Broadway in 1963.
Versions of the material include the 1940
film “The Shop Around the Corner” and the
1949’s “The Good Old Summer Time.” In
1998 came Nora Ephron’s take, “You’ve Got
LEFT: Actors wait for their cue to take the stage during a rehearsal for the Peninsula Association of Performing Artists’ production of “She Loves
Me.” RIGHT: Actors with the Peninsula Association of Performing Artists read through their lines during a rehearsal for “She Loves Me.”
Mail,” starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan.
The original play has, to use theater lin-
go, got legs. And the Peninsula Association
of Performing Arts — which turns 10 this
year — is ensuring the fun continues.
Barbara Poulshock, Washington penin-
sula’s grande dame of all things musical,
returns as the association’s director of stage
and music. Brooke Flood, Poulshock’s
protégé (and Cindy’s daughter), assists.
During rehearsals both Poulshock and
Brooke Flood pay scrupulous attention to
detail. Minutiae make the “whole” work.
Poulshock — who said she fell in love with
“She Loves Me” after watching “The Shop
Around the Corner” — fills up ringed note-
books with copious notes as scenes unfold.
Seated at Poulshock’s side, Brooke Flood
offers direction to the cast. “Move your hand
a little more to the left. Move upstage and
stand closer to him. We need to see both of
you lock eyes,” she coaxes while cradling
her 3-month-old son, William.
In the rear of the theater sits “tech guy,”
Glenn Ripley.
Asked about his involvement with the
artist association, Ripley said, “It’s not so
much the love of the theater, and what it
takes to run lights and sounds, as it is a love
of the people involved with PAPA.
“The people, the lights, the music, and
the sound working together make the play
come to life,” he said. CW