A central figure in the foundation of the Sequim theater scene is now part of the foundation — sort of.
Family members, friends and the cast members of Olympic Theatre Arts’ “The Book of Will” on June 1 celebrated the contributions of founding member Olivia Shea with her own engraved brick on the walkway leading to the OTA facility.
“I was surprised,” Shea said of the honor.
“I’ve always wanted my own brick,” she said with a grin.
OTA got its start more than 40 years ago at the Old Dungeness Schoolhouse, where Richard (“Rick”) Waites performed “Krapp’s Last Tape” — a one-man show based on the one-act play by Samuel Beckett — in 1980.
Following the performance, Waites asked anyone in attendance to stay behind if they were interested in starting a community theatre in Sequim, Shea recalled.
“I just happened to be in the audience,” she said.
“I had been in a lot of plays over in Spokane and in Europe, because I was teaching in Europe. I just wanted to do it so much. So we did. We met with other people. We formed a board … and started doing plays.”
The initial plays, held at the historic schoolhouse on Towne Road, were modest.
“I was in charge of the lighting … by walking over to the wall and turning on the light switch.”
Taking the lead
Waites left Sequim in 1989 for Seattle to act on professional stages such as the Seattle Repertory Theatre and ACT (A Contemporary Theatre); he returned in 2009.
In Waites’ absence, Shea and Christine Corrigan took over leading productions.
“At one point we didn’t have a director and I thought, ‘I’d kind of like to direct’,” Shea recalled.
Longtime Olympic Theatre Arts staple Olivia Shea points at a brick engraved in her honor at Olympci Theatre Arts last week. Photo by M. Medler
Her OTA directorial debut was “A Lovely Sunday for Creve Couer,” an all-women production penned by Tennessee Williams.
He last play as director was the October 2019, when OTA staged “The War of the Worlds,” a radio-style play just prior to the COVID pandemic.
In between, Shea estimates she’s led 29 or 30 OTA productions along with others she’s done overseas, as well as acting in some productions for the now defunct Port Angeles Light Opera Association (PALOA), where she played Miss Hannigan in “Annie” and Dolly in “Hello, Dolly.”
Reflecting on her theater career last week, she recalled bringing her daughter Sarah to one rehearsal where her character is shot. An understandably fraught Sarah rushed the stage to see if her mother was OK.
“I thought, ‘What in the world was I thinking, bringing this girl to this [rehearsal] were I get killed’?” Shea remembered.
She said one of her favorite productions was “The Gin Game,” a part comedy part drama featuring two elderly residents living in a poor, broken-down nursing home.
“They don’t want to be there, either one of them … so they start playing gin,” Shea said. “And I could never get gin, could never figure it out. But that’s OK, the other guy (actor Pat Owens) knew gin really well.”
‘It’s my anchor, my oxygen’
Said Shea, “Everything about theatre I love. It’s just kind of my anchor, my oxygen almost, you know?
“And I really needed it when the pandemic came along. So I came over here when I knew when they were going to be doing a play after everything (pandemic-related) was sort of settled down, but it never settled down, has it? I wanted to be in something so badly.”
So she asked “The Book of Will” director Marissa Meek if she could take the role of Anne Hathaway, Shakespeare’s wife, who has a small pat near the plays’ end.
“She loved the play as much as I did; she knows everybody and she’s incredibly talented,” Meek said of Shea. “I love having her there as another pair of eyes, another pair of ears. It’s a privilege to get to work with her.
“She knows everybody and she’s incredibly talented. She was such a big part of bringing so many people to the audition, because it’s a big cast — seventeen actors.”
‘The Book of Will’
Meek said she enjoys working with a cast that has a wide variety of ages and experiences — ingredients for the recipe of “The Book of Will” set for a June 10-26 run at OTA.
“It’s a real pleasure to work with veteran actors and younger actors together; I love inter-generational projects,” Meek said.
Sequim Gazette photo by Michael Dashiell Olivia Shea, right receives a special brick engraved in her honor at the Olympic Theatre Arts from OTA executive director Carol Willis on June 1.
“If you love Shakespeare,” Meek said, this is the play for you.
“It’s a love letter to the theatre.”
The play runs for three weekends, with Friday and Saturday shows at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday shows at 2 p.m.
The play follows the efforts of Henry Condell and John Heminges, colleagues of Shakespeare who after the death of their friend and mentor are determined to compile the First Folio and preserve the words of the plays that shaped their lives.
“Without risking what they did, we wouldn’t have these plays,” Meek said. “There’s a wonderful, historical feel.”
Said Shea, “There’s poignant moments. Some of the best actors in the King’s Men company (the playing company for whom Shakespeare wrote); they died and they knew all the plays by heart, but they never wrote them down,” Shea said.
“So then these two men, who were also actors, they had to run all over London and try to find things from different people who had been in shows.
“It’s a delightful play, but it’s not so serious that you can’t laugh.”
Meek said her favorite character is “someone who seems like and unimportant person … [but] he brings in tons of copies of scripts he should have. It saves the day.
“It shows me, it takes all kinds of people. His love of Shakespeare saves Shakespeare.”
Tickets for “The Book of Will” are $18 for adults and $12 for students. For advance tickets, visit olympictheatrearts.org or call 360-683-7326.
‘The Book of Will’
When: 7:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday, June 10-11, 17-18 and 24-25; 2 p.m. Sunday June 12, 19, 26
Where: Olympic Theatre Arts, 414 N. Sequim Ave.
Tickets: $18 adults, $12 students; for advance tickets, call 360-683-7326
More info: olympictheatrearts.org (tickets also at door)
