THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, March 15, 1995 TAG: 9503140119
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 13 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARLENE FORD, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 59 lines
No one joins the Marines to sing and dance. Sometimes it happens.
This week the Encore Players, a community theater group of Navy, Army and Marine personnel and dependents begins its eighth year with the weird, funny musical, ``Little Shop of Horrors.''
Director Jane Baez said, ``Maybe that's just why we do join the theater . is simply creative.''
Baez, the wife of a Navy commander, exudes excitement about the company. Leaning against the skeletal form of the 8-foot-tall, carnivorous plant for ``Little Shop'' she said, ``Let's face it, no one builds scenery for the glory. They've got to love what they do, and we all do here,'' she said.
The history of the Encore Players goes back a few years before settling into the facility at Little Creek. Ten years ago, it was a nonmilitary group of amateur thespians, who just happened to be military dependents.
Members spent their first few years doing parodies of musicals: ``East of South Pacific,'' ``Almost My Fair Lady,'' ``The King and Me.''
``It probably wasn't real legal doing what we did to those shows, but we didn't charge admission, either,'' the director laughed.
Finally, Baez and the informal little group decided to do the real thing. ``We only break even, but we're also strictly legit now. We pay royalties. I think if we ever made a profit, we'd just lower ticket prices,'' she said.
The company is under the auspices of the Navy's Morale, Welfare and Recreation department. Two major productions a year are staged at the base theater.
The troupe also plays retiree dinners, and all summer it was on the road at area senior and recreation centers with ``The Wiz.'' Dinner theater at the CPO Club is on the season schedule, but at irregular times - times when the best warblers and hoofers aren't off in the Med or at school.
The current show is typical of the lighthearted, tuneful production the company presents. Plenty of 1950s-sounding songs, dancing and the silly-business of a giant, man-eating plant. The cast is also typically mixed military: Lanny Warkenstein, a Navy dependent, is in the lead of Seymour; Cynthia Arrington, a civil service employee is Audrey; Mike Denbow, also a civil service employee, is Mr. Mushnit; and Drew Doolin, a captain in the Marine Corps is Dr. Orin Scrivello.
Some other cast members are Nikki Legan, Christina Baez and Warkenda Casey. Set designer is Christopher Murray of the Navy and ``plant builder'' is Jean Sulecki, Navy dependent and professional costumer. MEMO: Performance times are 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday; 2 and 8 p.m.
Saturday; and 3 p.m. Sunday, March 19. Tickets are $6 and $4. Call
460-5152 or 436-9512.
ILLUSTRATION: Jane Baez, wife of a Navy commander, is director of the Encore
Players.
by CNB