Sarah, Plain And Tall - Woodland Opera House

Left: Helen Dahlberg after Saturday afternoon's performance.

Comely Helen was perfectly-suited to be Sarah. Not only is she sufficiently tall (6 foot, 1 inch), but with appropriately-severe choices in clothing and hairstyle, could be made to look plain.

A brief synopsis from the Woodland Opera House:

Set in the early 1900s, this play by Joseph Robinette from the Newberry Award winning novel by Patricia MacLachlan brings to life the charming, heartwarming story of a Kansas farmer, Jacob Witting, (Dan Beard) a widower with two children, Anna (Amanda Young) and Caleb (Abby Miles). When Jacob places an ad in the newspapers seeking a wife he receives a reply from Sarah Wheaton (Helen Dahlberg) from Maine. Sarah will visit the family for a month to see how things work out: “I will come by train. I will wear a yellow bonnet. I am plain and tall.” Narrated by the adult Anna (Rebecca Baland) the story follows the tumultuous month when Sarah and the Wittings came to know each other. The joys and challenges of everyday life are depicted in this tender and touching tale.

Also in the cast are; Wendy Harris, Olivia Roberts, Taelen Robertson, Bobby Grainger, Janey Pintar, Lisa Curtis, Frank Hickox, and Cynthia Drumbor. The show is directed by Jason Hammond and Cris Medina is stage manager.

The production plays Fridays at 7:30, Saturday February 23 and Saturday March 8 at 7:30, Saturday March 1 and Saturday March 8 at 2:00 and Sundays at 2:00.

Main floor tickets are $10-adults, $6-17 and under. For reservations call 530-666-9617.

Post-show view of set.

Nice-looking, well-made set. The fly featuring the old-time photos, meant to represent the Wheaton house in Maine (not pictured) was my favorite.
Bobby Grainger played William Wheaton, Sarah's brother, and Janey Pintar (last seen as Tintinabula in 'Forum' at Magic Circle) played Meg Wheaton, Sarah's sister-in-law. Janey was bright and bubbly. It was interesting watching Bobby playing a more-subdued kind of role. I liked Bobby's biographical blurb in the program, which gave the most succinct and accurate reason I've ever seen to be an actor:

Bobby Grainger (William Wheaton) is happy to be back at his 3rd WOH production having previously graced our stage as the shockingly misguided Giuseppe Zangara in Assassins and last year's adorable and endearing Lefou in WOH's Beauty and the Beast. This once again proving Bobby's gratefulness to theatre for finding a fun and acceptable place for his multiple personality disorder.

Also in the show, recently from DMTC, was Lisa Curtis playing Effie and Wayne Raymond as Matthew Nordstrom. Wayne sings marvellously, yet plays the part of farmer better than anyone in Davis. I was surprised how well Abby Miles did playing a boy (Caleb Witting). In fact, during the show, I had no idea she was a girl. Dan Beard played an affable Jacob Witting, and Rebecca Baland and Amanda Young make an excellent tag team playing Anna Witting.

Jason Hammond is a fine director, and makes sure his cast understands the slow, subtle rhythms of this show.

Post-show view of set.

The audience could figure out most of the set, since it was fairly-literal (the windmill silhouette, for example, represented a windmill), but they were baffled by the free-floating polygon. To me, it looked almost like abstract Chinese symbolism for 'one house', but it was odd to have just one example of abstraction. Usually you either have lots of abstract symbols in a show, or none at all. The audience in my row began having whimsical fun with the polygon:

"What is that thing there? Is it a roof"
"I don't know what that thing is."
"It's not often you see a thing like that."
"You're right - they've never had a thing like that here before."

The musical theater crowd, of course, knows that Kansas roofs are never meant to be permanent structures, but are meant to be blown away by ferocious windstorms. The "thing" was a nice symbol, whatever it was.