SIUSLAW NEWS ❚ WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 26, 2015
Take center stage at
acting class Saturday
Are you interested in acting
and the theater? Now’s your
chance to take center stage.
Melanie Heard is offering
an acting class for adults on
four consecutive Saturdays:
Aug. 29 and Sept. 5, 12 and
19, from 10 a.m. to noon, at
the Florence Playhouse, 208
Laurel St. in Old Town.
During this fun and enrich-
ing four-week course, students
will explore characterization,
motivation, diction and stage
presence.
Students will learn how to
deal with stage fright, how to
audition like a pro, and uncov-
er individual strengths as an
actor, while also discovering
how to overcome habits and
weaknesses.
Through the use of games
and activities, participants will
be exposed to a wide range of
theater terminology and tips,
tricks and traps for actors.
“If you’re always wanted to
give acting a try, now is your
chance,” said Heard. “Acting
is very liberating and great for
building your self-confidence.
This class will be a lot of fun
for beginning actors, as well as
Library
Tidings
for experienced actors who
wish to hone their acting skills
and build upon previous
knowledge.”
The class will be custom tai-
lored to each level of partici-
pant.
Heard is a director, choreog-
rapher, actress and creden-
tialed teacher with more than
20 years of experience in the
professional theater world.
She co-owns Poison Pen
Players, a comedy murder
mystery company headquar-
tered in Florence, and is the
Artistic Director of CROW
(Children’s Repertory of
Oregon Workshops).
Originally
from
Los
Angeles, Heard has performed
in more than 50 plays and
musicals and holds a BA in
Theater Arts from Cal State
Fullerton and an MA in
Education.
To sign up, call Heard at
541-999-8641 or email poison
penplayers@yahoo.com.
All participants age 16 and
older are welcome and no
experience is required. Classes
are $12 per class, or all four
classes for $40.
News about
the Siuslaw
Public Library
Library Tidings,
a regular feature
of the Siuslaw News,
features news about
upcoming Siuslaw
Public Library pro-
grams for adults and
children, new books
and videos, and other
library news of interest
to the community.
Library Tidings by
Kevin Mittge
A Man Called Ove
By Fredrik Backman
Book review by Kevin Mittge
What a delightful book about
a curmudgeon! Ove seems to be
the grumpiest man alive. He
grumped at his beloved late
wife; he’s grumpy with the new
neighbors (“The Lanky One,”
the “Pregnant One” and their
kids); he’s grumpy trying to buy
a new computer; he’s grumpy
with people driving through his
housing development; and he’s
grumpy with a persistent stray
cat.
Ove wants order in his life,
wants nothing to change, wants
everything in its place, and
wants everybody following the
rules. And he doesn’t understand
why anybody would ever buy a
foreign car.
But life doesn’t work that way
for “A Man Called Ove,” the
first novel by Swedish author
Fredrik Backman.
Chapters alternate between
the present and the past, explain-
ing Ove’s background and his
rise to grumpiness.
His late wife Sonja was
wheelchair bound after an acci-
dent that took the life of their
unborn child. But she wasn’t
grumpy. She kept a very posi-
tive attitude and continued to
teach the most difficult of chil-
dren, who grew up and never
forgot her.
As the book begins it becomes
clear that Sonja has been dead
about six months. Ove has just
been “retired” unwillingly from
his job. He decides that with
nothing left to live for he will
kill himself. But things keep
getting in the way — like the
new neighbors backing over his
mailbox and neighbors needing a
ride to the hospital.
Over time you realize that
Ove really isn’t all that grumpy
and he comes to realize that he
has a lot of friends in his life. In
fact, it becomes clear that Ove
has a big heart for all those
pesky people (and cat) around
him.
“A Man Called Ove” was pub-
lished in the U.S. in 2014 to
great
reviews. This
year,
Backman’s second book, “My
Grandmother Asked Me To Tell
You She’s Sorry,” was published
and promises to be just as popu-
lar. If you are looking for a
funny, heartwarming story, look
no further than “A Man Called
Ove.”
Book sale adds third day
The Friends of the Library
5 A
will again host its Labor Day
Book Sale, with a new twist.
This year the book sale will be a
three-day event from Saturday,
Sept. 5, through Monday,
Sept. 7. Hours of the sale are
Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. to
4 p.m.
On Monday, hours will be
from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., and you
may fill a “grocery size” plastic
bag with books for $2.
Regular prices for all three
days range from 25 cents to $1.
Books of all kinds will be for
sale: fiction books include mys-
tery, horror, adventure, romance
and science fiction. Nonfiction
books will include biographies,
cookbooks, computer books,
how-to manuals, philosophy,
religion, politics, travel, mathe-
matics and other scientific top-
ics, bird and mushroom identifi-
cation books, photography and
music.
Cash, checks, credit and debit
cards are accepted.
All proceeds of the sale go to
support the Siuslaw Public
Library and its programs. The
Friends of the Siuslaw Public
Library is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit
organization. For more informa-
tion, contact SiuslawLibrary
Friends@gmail.com.
M ARRIAGE FARCE STRICTLY FOR LAUGHS
L L E E O
O M
M L L I I D D
‘Whose Wives Are
They Anyway?’
T O T T R T R O
N E E Y Y
A A T T A
T A
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N E R E R Y Y N
:,//6‡¬352%$7(‡/,9,1*758675(9,6,216
:,//6‡¬352%$7(‡/,9,1*758675(9,6,216
216 Nopal Street (Old Town)
Review
40 Years Lane County
Legal Experience
10 Year Coast Resident
997-9983
B Y B URNEY G ARELICK
In Florence, the dog days
concluded with August when
the final theatrical treat of the
season hits the stage.
It’s About Time Productions,
another acting troupe in this art-
ful city, whipped the laughing
endorphins with a comedy titled
“Whose Wives Are They
Anyway?” on the main stage at
the Florence Events Center.
The play, written by Michael
Parker, is a farce with lots of
doors and lots of door slam-
ming, innocent dudes trapped in
a well of good intentions, a
hotel with old-fashioned rotary-
dialed malfunctioning tele-
phones, bossy women, a
brawny guy dolled up, and a
conning curmudgeon.
It’s all played strictly for
laughs, laughs that have been
tracked across TV sitcoms for
50 years.
One of the pleasures of this
show was the elaborate stage set
that fills the big stage.
There is no curtain, so before
the show begins theatergoers
can feast their eyes on the com-
fortable hotel lobby, reception
desk and stairs leading to
rooms.
Inset stage right and slightly
elevated are two bedrooms open
to expectations.
The stage is set for the ulti-
mate bedroom farce.
Kudos to director Judy
Adams and her astonishing set-
IMPOUNDMENT
12761
A juvenile male American
Blue Heeler mix #12761 and a
male
German
Shepherd
#12765 have been impounded
at the Florence Area Humane
Society.
One-Year
g
in
t
ra
b
le
e
C
Location!
In Our New
12765
Call 541-997-4277
stop by the shelter
2840 Rhododendron Drive
claim.
Visit FAHS on the web
florencehumane.org.
or
at
to
at
up crew. Once the frenzied
action begins, the set serves
as a sturdy vessel on a stormy
sea.
The other pleasure of this
show was the admirable acting
of the ensemble.
One wishes the playwright
had provided livelier lines, but
the enterprising actors make the
best of them. When you’re
given lemons, make lemonade!
The story goes like this: Two
co-workers in a cosmetics firm
send their wives on a shopping
spree so they can enjoy a week-
end of golf before returning to
work under a new CEO.
The two men are surprised to
meet the new CEO at the hotel,
and she looks forward to meet-
ing their wives she assumes
accompany them.
The men don’t want to disap-
point the CEO and risk losing
their jobs so they must produce
wives. One man dresses as the
other man’s wife and must also
find his own wife, convincing
the hotel receptionist to play
along.
The hotel manager is prim,
proper and highly suspicious of
shenanigans — all the time
dealing with faulty telephones
and flummoxed by callers bet-
ting on horses.
The crusty handyman com-
plains every time he’s asked to
carry luggage. When the actual
wives show up to surprise their
spouses, all hell breaks loose.
The eight actors, led by their
able director, give the show a
run for its money.
With the skill of a surgeon,
John Bachmann keeps the lid
Can’t understand all their
technical mumbo jumbo?
We’ll be nice
and clear.
on reasonable David McGachen
with the best intentions to
placate the CEO and play golf.
Scott Waiss is hilarious as
John Baker, making quick
changes from avid golfer
in bright-colored harlequin
trousers to wife in long dress,
high heels, frowsy wig and
squeaky voice. Put him back the
way she was. It’s a long way
from Waiss’s Li’l Abner on the
FEC stage a decade ago!
New to Florence theater,
Jessica Williams, as Tina the
receptionist, is exceptionally
adept at comic turns.
Cathy Dupont plays hotel
manager Mrs. Carlson to a fidg-
ety tee, a fussbudget with a
witty witchy walk. Dupont is a
Florence trouper, returning
from a triumph as Big Nurse
in “One Flew Over The
Cuckoo’s Nest” and a delight as
eccentric Ouiser in “Steel
Magnolias.”
Chuck Knorr is Wilson, the
curmudgeonly
handyman.
Knorr is just plain funny, a
natural comic known for his
roles in melodramas during
many summers at Florence
Playhouse.
Nancy Gascich plays it
straight as CEO DL, sometimes
referred to as Dragon Lady,
which leads to the frantic fren-
zy. Like Bachmann, Waiss,
Dupont, and Knorr, she is a vet-
eran of Florence theater.
The same can be said for
Victoria Seitzinger as Karly
McGachen and Judy Matheny
as Laura Baker, the real wives.
Seitzinger plays the take-charge
wife, while Matheny turns on
the waterworks with crying
arias.
Not only does laughter keep
those dog days at bay, it’s good
for your health, and Florence
actors are good at tickling your
funny bone as time goes by.
If your endorphins need exer-
cise, “Whose Wives Are T
hey Anyway?” concludes this
weekend, Aug. 28-30, at the
FEC.
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