Continued from Page 6
With the theater poised to open this
fall, drama enthusiasts and local actors are
anticipating the comeback.
Frank Jagodnik is a longtime actor at
the theater, coming up on his 25th season
with the organization. He said this past
year was diffi cult without being able to be
around his theater friends. He missed the
creative and social experiences that com-
munity theater provides.
“The theater has become such an inte-
gral part of my leisure activities that it
felt like I couldn’t spend time with fam-
ily there too,” he said. “Even if I wasn’t in
the cast, my wife and I always enjoyed all
the other productions and seeing our the-
ater friends in action.”
The shows to come
In the coming months, the theater will
off er four productions, two of which will
take place in the theater while adhering to
health guidelines for COVID-19.
The fi rst two shows in this year’s
lineup are “Sixty-Second Shakespeare”
and “The Case of the Coaster Clambake.”
Both productions will be performed at the
Cannon Beach Park on Fridays and Satur-
days, from July 9 to Sept. 4.
“(‘Sixty-Second Shakespeare’ is) really
designed to be accessible to everybody,
whether you’re a Shakespeare afi cionado
or not. It’ll be nice little snippets from
things that people will recognize,” Tronier
said. “And the mystery is just, you know,
who doesn’t love a good mystery read in
the summer?”
Jagodnik is particularly anticipating
the upcoming mystery production. He and
his wife, Liz, created the show’s origi-
nal concept some 15 years ago, he said. It
has since been enhanced by play director
Katherine Lacaze and executive director
Patrick Lathrop.
The fi nal two productions of the year,
Oscar Wilde’s “The Picture of Dorian
Gray” and Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas
Carol,” are planned to take place on stage
and under the show lights of the theater.
“(‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’) actu-
ally will be the fi rst show we have in the
theater,” Tronier said. “It’s one act, so we
won’t have intermission. We’re just trying
to limit interaction with others just as we
ease back into being in a theater space.”
The “Dorian Gray” production will run
on Fridays and Saturdays for the whole
month of October. For the holiday sea-
son, the theater will off er showtimes for
“A Christmas Carol” on Fridays and Sat-
urdays from Nov. 19 to Dec. 18.
No callbacks for COVID
In preparation for the upcoming shows,
Actors perform the Coaster’s rendition of ‘Annie’ in 2019.
the theater developed a COVID-19 safety
and mitigation plan to help guide the
reopening. Not only for people who are
purchasing tickets and attending shows,
Tronier said, but also to keep volunteers,
actors, and anybody involved in shows as
safe as possible.
The theater follows practices set forth
by the Oregon Health Authority and rec-
ommendations by the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention. Some of these
preventative measures include social dis-
tancing, temperature screenings and face
coverings for employees and guests alike.
Due to meticulous planning, Tronier
said, the summer productions are tak-
ing place at the Cannon Beach Park as
outdoor spaces prove to be safer from
COVID transmission than indoor events.
Although social distancing will be
encouraged at the performances, the
CDC’s recent recommendation allowing
vaccinated people to resume their activi-
ties without masks has raised some ques-
tions. The matter has not yet been offi -
cially discussed within the theater but its
safety and mitigation plan is a living doc-
ument that’s subject to change, Tronier
said.
At the start of the year, the theater also
implemented a new ticketing system that
automatically social distances those in the
audience. Event goers in the same group,
Tonier said, can select the seats they want
in their cohort, so the system will auto-
matically block out seats around them to
create a socially-distanced bubble.
“We don’t want people to put their
time, energy and money, when it comes to
buying tickets, out there and then some-
one gets sick and we have to cancel,”
Tronier said. “We’re just trying to do the
best for our community … We have to be
fl exible. That’s kind of been our guiding
word in planning for things.”
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