An original stage adaptation of Charles’ Dickens Great Expectations will be presented at Orcas Center October 15-24, featuring an all local cast.
Great Expectations is perhaps one of Dicken’s most widely read novels which features hauntingly memorable characters. Miss Havisham, for example, is the bitter woman who was left at the alter and seeks to invoke suffering on men as revenge. Pip is the boy who was plucked out of his working class home by an anonymous patron to be raised as “a gentleman”, and at the machinations of Miss Havisham, falls in love with the beautiful and cruel Estella. The tale is one of coming to age with harsh and difficult lessons to be learned.
This stage version of Great Expectations was adapted by Julie Beckman for Book-It Repertory Theatre, a Seattle-based company that is committed to staging great works of literature. Orcas audiences may remember Sweet Thursday, another Book-It adaptation that was performed in fall 2007. Orcas Center is working in partnership with Book-It on the Dickens work — the current production is a workshop for a later Seattle world premiere.
Jane Jones is directing the play. Jones is the founder of Book-It and founding co-artistic director of Book-It Repertory Theatre. In her 20 years of staging literature, she has performed and directed works by such literary giants as Eudora Welty, Edith Wharton, Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Pam Houston, Raymond Carver, Frank O’Connor, Ernest Hemingway, Colette, Amy Bloom, John Irving, John Steinbeck, Daphne du Maurier, and Jane Austen, as well as Dickens.
The complete cast and company is:
Pip — Jamie Mulligan-Smith
Estella — Jules Mann
Miss Havisham — Mary Bayley
Joe/Drummle — Bryan Grantham
Jaggers — David Schermerhorn
Mrs. Joe — Donna McCoy
Biddy/Herbert — Halley McCormick
Magwitch/Wemmick — Freddy Hinkle
Orlick/Mrs. Wopsle — Ron Herman
Pumblechook/Compeyson — Sukima Hampton
Dramaturge — Antoinette Botsford
Producer — Lynda Sanders
Stage Manager — Kate Hansen
Prop Mistress — Diane Skaar
Set & Lighting Design — Elena Hartwell
Lighting Operator — Phil Burbo
Costume Designers — Kathy Walsh and Deborah Sparks
Great Expectations will be performed Thursday-Saturday, October 15-17 and 22-24. All performances are at 7:30 pm EXCEPT for the final performance on Saturday, October 24, which is a 2 pm matinee. A study and discussion guide is posted on the Orcas Center website for use by teachers and their students, and by book clubs.
Tickets for the play are $16, $12 for Orcas Center members, and $8 for students. For more information or to purchase tickets, please visit www.orcascenter.org or call or 360/376-2281 ext 1 during box office hours, Thursday-Saturday, noon – 4 p.m.
