10A • October 7, 2016 | Cannon Beach Gazette | cannonbeachgazette.com
Laughter served in Coaster’s ‘Don’t Dress for Dinner’
By Nancy McCarthy
For EO Media Group
Those who attend “Don’t
Dress for Dinner” at the Coast-
er Theatre Playhouse won’t
have to wear formal attire, but
they will have to bring an appe-
tite for a comedy full of laughs.
In this tightly written romp
that resembles a Shakespear-
ean farce, the question to be
considered by the actors and
the audience alike is: Who is
whom when?
Director Mick Alderman
manages to keep the dizzy-
ing disarray of mistresses,
friends, cooks and Suzis low-
ing smoothly. That may be be-
cause this is the third time he
has encountered the play. He
directed it as a readers theater
for an American Association of
University Women beneit in
2001 and designed the lighting
for it when it was staged at the
former River Theater in Asto-
ria in 2007.
“I found it hysterical,” Al-
derman said. “I laughed all
the way through rehearsals.
It keeps me laughing. In my
30 years of theater, I’ve never
seen a funnier play.”
A local playwright, ilm-
maker, actor and author, Al-
derman began telling stories in
grade and high school when he
and his friends ilmed stop-mo-
tion animations with clay and
action igures. In a theater
class at Clatsop Community
College, teacher Del Corbett
taught Alderman how to de-
sign the lighting for theatrical
productions, and Alderman
has been doing that for sever-
al years at the Coaster Theatre
and other North Coast venues.
As a screenwriter, Alder-
man wrote the scripts for sev-
eral of his own ilms, includ-
ing the supernatural thriller
“Haunted Shore,” winner of
the Best Narrative Feature of
a Paciic Northwest Filmmak-
er at the Eugene International
Film Festival of 2011.
Several of his own full-
length plays have been staged
locally.
Alderman also authored a
memoir, “Three Weeks With
the Goonies,” detailing his
experience on the set of “The
Goonies” as a guest of direc-
tor Richard Donner when the
movie was shot in Astoria in
1984.
SUBMITTED PHOTOS BY GEORGE VETTER/CANNON-BEACH.NET
Suzette, played by Jean Rice, center, pretends to be the mistress of Robert, played by Jason Hussa, let, who is actually having an
afair with his best friend’s wife, Jacqueline, played by Jenni Tronier, right.
The “fun part” about direct-
ing a play, Alderman said, is
not having to worry about cam-
era angles and lighting each
scene, which requires so much
attention when making ilms.
“When I’m doing that, I
don’t get to interact with the
actors, but as a director, all I
have to worry about is the act-
ing, and that was great. We just
have to tell the story.”
The story of “Don’t Dress
for Dinner” takes place out-
side of Paris. Bernard has in-
vited his mistress, Suzanne, to
his home while his wife, Jac-
queline, is away for the week-
end. Bernard’s best friend,
Robert — who, it turns out,
is Jacqueline’s lover (unben-
ownst to Bernard) — also is
visiting, unaware that he is to
act as Bernard’s alibi for that
weekend.
When Jacqueline inds out
that Robert is arriving, she de-
cides to stay home, unaware
of Bernard’s mistress or of her
impending visit. Meanwhile,
Suzette, a cook who Bernard
has hired to prepare a gour-
met dinner for Suzanne, also
arrives. Bernard’s attempts to
keep his affair secret, along
with Robert’s and Jacqueline’s
worries that Bernard will dis-
cover their duplicity, makes for
a fast-paced frolic on stage.
“It’s sort of a commentary
on a lot of things,” Alderman
said. It’s primarily an explora-
tion of human nature, he added.
“We’re laughing at ourselves.
The situation is so absurd yet
so human.”
Playing the roles of Bernard
and Jacqueline are Ryan Hull
and Jenni Tronier, who are
married to each other.
Hull, who has directed and
acted in plays at the Coaster,
said he was a “ish out of water
when it came to the circum-
stances Bernard faces.”
“It’s been a challenge to
cheat on my acting wife when
it’s my real wife, which I would
never think to do, except when
we’re on stage. Oh my, this is
complicated,” Hull said.
Hull and Tronier, who
works as public relations and
operations manager at the
Coaster, co-founded a produc-
tion company and produced
several plays before moving to
Cannon Beach.
Jean Rice plays Suzette, the
cook who has to pretend she
is Robert’s mistress, while the
mistress, Suzanne, pretends
she is the cook who can’t cook
(as noted, it’s complicated).
Rice says her character is the
only level-headed member in
the ensemble. But to prepare
for the play, she had to develop
two different voices and man-
nerisms.
“I hope the audience leaves
the theater wanting to see more
shows because this one was a
hoot!” Rice said.
Also appearing in the play
are Rhonda Alderman, as the
mistress; and Stewart Martin,
as Suzette’s husband. Local
actor Jason Hussa, who plays
Robert, illed in two weeks
before the play opened to re-
place Richard Bowman, who
originally was cast in the part
and had to drop out following a
family emergency.
“Casting is the key element
to any play,” Alderman said.
“There’s not a person involved
in this play that doesn’t have
at least a dozen shows behind
them. They know very well
what they’re doing. That’s
good, since I’m not an acting
teacher.”
Even the stage set becomes
a character in the play. All of
the action occurs in a stylishly
renovated barn. The kitchen
is the former dairy, the dining
room is the former hen house
and two guest bedrooms are
the old cow shed and piggery.
“I wanted to go with the
idea that they used everything
that had been in the barn,” Al-
derman said.
To create the ambiance, Al-
derman’s father, Jerry, gathered
up 30 old pallets donated by
Astoria Warehousing Inc.
“He spent weeks pulling
those pallets apart,” Alderman
said. “There are 200 planks that
make up the bulk of the walls
(around the stage). “We wanted
it to look like old lumber.”
Jerry, an experienced car-
penter, and Kent Cloyd, from
Coaster Construction, put the
walls up, and Alderman stained
all of them. Jerry also built
sliding barn doors leading to
the two bedrooms.
Then, Jerry found planks
that had been used as benches
during an outdoor wedding at
a dairy near Alderman’s house.
A few of those 30-foot-long
planks were cut up to create
stairs, a bar and shelves behind
the bar.
The set heightens the hu-
mor for the audience, a goal
Alderman wants to achieve.
“I just want them to laugh,”
he said. “I can’t believe they
won’t.”
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