2 // COASTWEEKEND.COM
Shippin’ it
Peninsula Players
build sailing ship set for
‘HMS Pinafore’ production
By PATRICK WEBB
FOR COAST WEEKEND
N
o one was present to record the con-
versation, but it was presumed to go
like this:
Rita Smith: “We have chosen ‘HMS
Pinafore’ for our next show. I want you to
build a sailing ship on our stage.”
Andy Tauber: “OK.”
A month or two later, Smith and Tauber
are busy rehearsing the cast for the Penin-
sula Players’ next theatrical production.
And the stage of the River City Play-
house in Ilwaco, Wash., has been trans-
formed into a 19th-century British sailing
vessel, complete with ship’s wheel, antique
bell and a sturdy-looking bowsprit.
Tauber is the stage manager and set and
lighting designer. He retired to the Long
Beach Peninsula a few years ago after a
behind-the-scenes show business career in
California.
Smith is the guiding light for the Play-
ers, directing and regularly appearing in
the troupe’s shows.
The curtain won’t go up on their version
of the Gilbert and Sullivan light opera until
Friday, March 29. But getting a set built
early is critical to determining blocking —
the theater word for where the actors stand
to deliver their lines.
“The whole play is set on the deck of
a ship that is tied up to the dock,” said
Smith. “It’s great! It is different from what
started out.”
Tauber commended his crew of four
who pitched in. Steve Kovach and three
actors from the show, Natasha Beals, Pat-
rick Buckley and Bette Lu Krause, worked
three full days, including modifications.
“We changed the design after it was
originally built,” he said. “Some things
didn’t work in the way we were doing the
blocking. Then we decided to make the
whole stage the ship.”
Tauber said the only difference between
this project and his professional career is
budget. “The challenge is finding the mate-
rials to make it work.”
Patrick Webb
Robert Scherrer, who plays the captain,
tests the knots holding together the
ratlines during a break from rehearsals. The
bowsprit pokes out into the audience to give
an impression of the scale of the ship.
In community theater, set pieces are
inevitably reused. Tauber directed “Black
Comedy” for the troupe in November,
and built a colorful apartment set with an
upstairs bedroom. Some larger wooden
portions have been converted into deck
levels; other pieces were gleaned from his
recent house remodel.
“I like the bow,” he said, pointing to
authentic-looking rigging with the Union
Jack unfurled aloft. “We have ‘ratlines’ —
someone climbs on them during the show.”
Internet research helped identify sailor’s
knots. “You can tighten the rope, but it’s
not rigged like a real ship.”
Touches of authenticity are evident,
however. The troupe borrowed a heavy
cannon from Tucker Wachsmuth of Oys-
terville, Wash., that came from an Ilwaco
shipwreck.
The show will run Friday, March
29, to Sunday, April 14. Details will be
announced. CW
Patrick Webb
Submitted photo
Tucker Wachsmuth, of Oysterville, Wash.,
delivers a heavy cannon to the theater in
Ilwaco for the Peninsula Players’ production
of ‘HMS Pinafore.’
Stage manager Andy Tauber at the wheel
of ‘HMS Pinafore,’ which will set sail for
audiences in Ilwaco, Wash., March 29. He
and a crew of four built the sailing ship set
for the Peninsula Players’ production over
the course of three busy days.