Photos by Luis Escobar
Although I’m ready to rave about the energetic and joyful performances of the cast and seven-member band of PCPA’s production of the Tony Award-winning musical Come From Away—which opened June 11 in Solvang for a three-weekend run—I must pause for what amounts to a Public Service Announcement.
It doesn’t get much better than sitting at Solvang Festival Theater, under the stars, on an uncharacteristically warm summer evening (thank the recent heat wave hitting the Central Coast), and being welcomed and appreciated by a couple of the people who make the theater and its shows possible.
Polly Firestone Walker, a member of the nonprofit Solvang Theaterfest board of directors, and Mark Booher, who is retiring in December after 27 years as artistic director and dean of PCPA, took a moment before the show to express their thanks to the audience and the community that makes productions like Come From Away possible.
It was a feel-good moment leading to a feel-good production.
The cast and crew has hit its stride after a three-week run back in April at PCPA’s Marion Theatre in Santa Maria. It concludes its current run on June 27, and it sure looks like no one has yet grown tired telling the tale of the day—September 11, 2001—when 38 planes with thousands of passengers from all over the world were grounded in the small town of Gander, Newfoundland.
No missteps here—the cast is uniformly committed, seamlessly changing their accents from Canadian to American to many others representing plane passengers that their hosts—with no small effort—accommodate with gusto and human kindness.
A few particular song moments stand out: “Welcome to the Rock,” the show’s kick-off led by the ever-excellent Erik Stein; “I Am Here,” in which the amazing Karole Foreman shares her character’s worries with the wonderful Molly Stilliens; “Screech In,” which brings the high-spirited band onstage to help initiate the visitors to local customs; and “Me and the Sky,” featuring Karin Hendricks-Bolen in a heartfelt rendition of her character’s life journey as the first female pilot for American Airlines.
This production is a work of precision, with director Roger DeLaurier, music director Paul Marszalkowski, and choreographer Molly Dobbs having worked out all the beats to ensure that songs, patter, and blocking all work as a flawless whole. That’s no small feat.
With a dozen wooden chairs and a couple of tables, a few props, strategic costume augmentations (credit to Klara Wilson), and excellent lighting design (kudos to Michael Palumbo), we go from the cabin of a plane to a school bus to a diner in Gander and back ’round again.
The set design is eloquent and minimalist, with Jason Bolen placing a map of where we are in the world behind the suggestion of a forest of birch trees (native and common to Newfoundland).
PCPA’s production of Come From Away doesn’t stray into saccharine or melodramatic territory. While it does have its serious moments, overall its feel-good vibe derives from the yearning it engenders for community on both a local and a global scale. And it’s a reminder that some good can follow from tragedy—not a small souvenir from an entrancing night under the starry skies of Solvang.