From The Director: Christine Mani
Fourteen years ago, when I first walked into the Benicia High School theatre, my new home away from home, it was completely empty. The stage was bare and in the audience there were no seats, no carpets, just a blank concrete floor and bare walls. But when I turned away from the empty audience and continued to explore my new abode, wondering what theatre life had come before me here, I opened the curtain covering the back wall of the theatre and saw a sewer scene painted on the wall of the stage. As it turned out it was from the BHS production of Guys and Dolls that they had produced 2 years prior, with the assistance of Chris Piazza as Vocal Director, who is still with us today. So, though I have yet to repeat any show that I have produced here, it was with that memory in mind that I began to think about having Guys and Dolls for this year’s musical.
As I began looking at the musical script and requirements last Spring, my one big worry was the amount of male actors needed for the show. As I continued my investigations over Summer, I fell in love with the show all over again, but once again wondered if we had the right students. I decided to hold pre-auditions in Fall to see who we would have, and it was then I knew we wouldn’t have the “males” needed. But sometimes fate reminds you to look at things with a different perspective, and I realized how much fun and interest we could give to the show using more of the wonderful female performers we have. So now, a year from our first thoughts of producing this show and with sex-blind casting at it’s best, we see my version of Guys and Dolls, one of the most widely known and recognized musical theatre productions of all times, come to life.
Let our ascent to Runyanland begin.
From The Costumer: Kaylyn Peterson
"Guys and Dolls is a show that has been a joy to costume because its design is so classic. It was a conscious decision to keep our female performers as female characters, changing the characters' genders but providing a wonderful opportunity to try something different than just the typical pinstripe suits and fedoras. Taking inspiration from the late 1930s all the way through the 1950s, the majority of the costumes for this production have come from our own stock. Audience members may recognize pieces from shows such as On the Town and Bye Bye Birdie. As a historic side note, I performed in a Benicia High production of Guys and Dolls as a freshman back in 1997 as Nicely-Nicely, under the direction of then-teacher Flo van Koten and our own musical director Chris Piazza. Some of the costume pieces used in our production during Take Back Your Mink were actually used in my production from 17 years ago!
I would like to extend huge thanks to Carol Edlinger at Diablo Theatre Company for her generous help, Linda Wichelmann for her wonderful work as a seamstress and volunteer, Miles and the kind folks at Costume Corner for alll their help with difficult pieces, Natasha Brown for her excellent wig styling and contributions backstage as Wardrobe Supervisor, and Katrina Peterson for being a jack-of-all-trades and my little lieutenant."
