‘Almost, Maine’
CHERYL SCHWEIZER | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 3 years, 3 months AGO
A woman (Destiny Bunny) arrives in a really unusual place in the Masquers Theater production of “Almost, Maine” opening tonight.
COURTESY PHOTO/MASQUERS
A couple (Jason Noble, left, and Rosalee Chamberlain) confront their crumbling relationship on an ice-skating trip in the Masquers Theater production of “Almost, Maine.”
A couple in love (Amy Dana, left, and CW Forrest) discuss the metaphysics of closeness in “Almost, Maine” opening tonight at the Masquers Theater.
Senior Reporter Cheryl Schweizer is a journalist with more than 30 years of experience serving small communities in the Pacific Northwest. She began her post-high-school education at Treasure Valley Community College and enerned her journalism degree at Oregon State University. After working for multiple publications, she has settled down at the Columbia Basin Herald and has been a staple of the newsroom for more than a decade. Schweizer’s dedication to her communities and profession has earned her the nickname “The Baroness of Bylines.” She covers a variety of beats including health, business and various municipalities. | February 10, 2023 1:30 AM
SOAP LAKE — A play about the many variations of love, as revealed as a cold night in a small Maine community, comes to the stage at the Masquers Theater for the next three weekends. “Almost, Maine” opens at 7:30 p.m. Friday at the theater, located at 322 E. Main St., Soap Lake.
Performances are scheduled at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday through Feb. 26. Tickets can be purchased at the theater website, www.masquers.com.
“Almost, Maine” follows the romantic trials, tribulations and triumphs, some funny and some sad, of the residents of a little town - well, it’s not really big enough to qualify as a town. It’s more of a wide spot in the road, with undertones of the supernatural.
Romance blossoms or goes bad, friendships are made, over nine separate stories in two acts.
A couple encounters one another when the girl comes to Maine to say goodbye to her estranged husband (with the help of the northern lights) and camps in the guy’s yard. A chance meeting in a bar forces a man to face the fact his ex-girlfriend is moving on - but maybe there’s a path for him to move on too.
It’s a different kind of town. A woman carries the pieces of her broken heart in a paper bag, and a man literally shrinks as he loses faith in love.
Director Cynthia Beyer said that difference caught her eye.
“What attracted me was its uniqueness,” Beyer wrote in response to an email from the Herald. “I had never seen or heard of something done this way. As a new director, I’m trying to have some new ideas.”
The cast includes Jason Noble, Carmen Rimpple, Destiny Bunny, Mistya Zaleski, Amy Dana, Rosalee Chamberlain, CW Forrest, Connor Noble and Emily Forrest.
Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at [email protected].
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