Oscar is a divorced middle-aged guy living like a slob in his apartment … until Felix moves in. His wife is leaving him and he’s suicidal. Oscar takes him in, but Felix is not only depressed, he’s a compulsive neat freak. Roommates arguing over dishes might not be an oddity, but for this pair, not getting along is an understatement. Oscar is about to take Felix’s suicide into his own hands. They try to smooth things over by hosting poker games and inviting their hot British neighbors over, but their relationship seems to be failing almost as hard as their marriages did.
The Odd Couple is one of the most famous American comedies, having made it to the big and small screens.
Unlike many people involved in theater, Director Lucas Hill says he doesn’t have any superstitions preceding opening night.
“I’ve heard some people say they don’t want to wash their socks until the show is over. My only superstition is that it’s not good to freak out superstitious actors … If you say the name of ‘The Scottish play’ they will literally freak out on you!” says Hill.
While saying this, he climbs a ladder to set up the lighting over the otherwise pitch-dark Pentacle stage.
“Macbeth,” whispers Tony Zandol, Pentacle’s production designer.
“I’m glad you said it because I wasn’t going to,” says Hill.
“Because, you know, he’s not superstitious,” rebuts Zandol.
“I’m not superstitious, but it never hurts to be careful. I didn’t freak out at you for saying it. Thank you very much, Tony. Are we cursed now?”
Deadly accidents have occurred in productions of Macbeth, a play about evil spirits, and this is why it’s forbidden to say the name inside a theater.
Bad luck could affect the actors’ ability to remember all the lines, or it might even cause one of the lights to fall on their head.
“That’s why people say ‘break a leg.’ Supposedly luck works backwards in a theater so if you wish for them to break a leg they will be in good health,” says Lucas.
Macbeth is not the only scare at Pentacle, which Zandol says is supposed to be haunted by the spirit of Sheila, one of the founders.
“Theaters are dark. There are tons of little nooks and crannies, Phantom of the Opera type of things,” says Hill.
As opening day approaches, cursed or not, Hill is moving forward with the show. The actors have it all memorized, the set is almost ready and the costumes have turned out great.
“It’s set in New York in 1965 and there’s a certain style to that time period. The guys are mostly wearing sport coats and skinny ties and the ladies have short skirts. The women’s costumes are really cute! Each of the characters has a slightly different look to them based on their personality. A lot of them lived through the ’60s, themselves, so they remember what it was like,” says Hill.
He says The Odd Couple will be enjoyable for audiences as young as teenagers.
“Kids younger than high school probably wouldn’t enjoy it very much but a high school audience would enjoy the show and they’d get it. This is a play about middle-aged divorced guys so that’s probably the ideal audience, adults who have been married who can relate to the ideas, but honestly, it’s pretty universal,” says Lucas, adding that anyone who has had a bad roommate situation could relate to the characters. “It’s about friendship,” he says.
The Odd Couple will be Vern Lovelace’s debut on stage. He plays Roy, one of Oscar’s poker buddies. Despite it being his first time acting, Lovelace is not nervous anymore.
“The nervousness has gone away but I’m sure it’ll come back about a day or two before opening,” says Lovelace, who has enjoyed every one of the almost daily, long practices.
“At my age [of 70], it’s very exciting to be enjoying things like a young person would doing something for the first time,” he says. “It’s interesting and fun. It would be an understatement to say that it’s fun!”
Lovelace’s biggest trouble at first was to keep from laughing at the lines, especially when a mistake was made.
Another actor, Jennifer Gimzewski, who plays one of the British sisters, Gwendolyn, can’t wait for a real audience.
Gimzewski says, “It changes the atmosphere altogether! They laugh at something you never saw before, giving a whole new vista to you.”
More information:
January 26, 27: Community/student nights
February 2, 15: benefit nights for VORP and Willamette Master Chorus, respectively.
Regular evening performances at 7:30 p.m.: January 28, 29, February 3-5, 9-13, 16-19
Sunday matinee performances at 2 p.m.: January 30, February 6.
Tickets are $17 Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sunday evenings and $18.00 on Fridays, Saturdays and Sunday Matinees. Tickets are available at the Pentacle Theatre Ticket office located at 145 Liberty St. NE in downtown Salem or at Pentacle Theatre’s main grounds. For more information contact the Pentacle Theatre office at 503-485-4300. The theater is located in West Salem at 324 52nd Ave. NW about 5 miles west of Salem on Highway 22.
Cast
Vern Lovelace (Roy)
Jeff Baer (Felix)
Robert Herzog (Oscar)
Jennifer Gimzewski (Gwendolyn)
Deborah Leinen (Cecily)
Neil Vannice (Vinnie)
Kevin Crawford (Speed)
Ross Waite (Murray)
Crew & Staff
Lucas Hill (Director)
Heathre Powell (Assistant Director)
Jodi Deming (Stage Manager)
Tony Zandol (Production Director)
Jo Dodge (Production Consultant)
Theresa Stevenson (Light Operator)
Jim Wilson (Sound Operator)
Donna Cowan (Costumer)
Chris McCarty (Board Liaison)
