In good company

By Sage Merritt

Published: May 20, 2008

What do you get when you take a seasoned director and area celebrity, some of the area’s best theater talent, a musical director visiting from Texas, a script by Stephen Sondheim and just three weeks of preparation?
You get “Company,” opening this Friday and running through Monday at the Kate Collins Middle School auditorium. Showtime is 7:30 p.m. every night for the production. Admission is $15, and tickets are available at the door, Shear Dimensions Salon and Day Spa in Waynesboro or Sweet Williams Florist in Fishersville.
The idea to do the show originated with director Colton Berry and his friend, music director Jane Volke, currently visiting from Houston.
“I was in Texas, visiting Katie Maloy, who I met on ‘American Idol,’ ” Berry said. “That is how the story begins. While I was there, I met a choir director, Jane Volke, and I was telling her about theater in the area and she was really intrigued. … So she came to visit specifically to do a show. I shipped her in.”
After Berry and Volke picked through scripts and settled on the show “Company” by Sondheim, Berry got to work recruiting the best talent he had worked with in the area, veteran actors from organizations such as the Waynesboro Players and ShenanArts.
The cast includes Berry, Barbara Spilman-Lawson, Bob Wright, Andrea Saunders, Blair Wingfield, Ayrin White, Jake Frank, Hannah Woodrum, Matt Johnson, Mariah Henkins, Hanna Walters, Ned Greene, Volke and Scott Woofster.
Together, the group set out to pull together their own twist on “Company,” with only three weeks of rehearsal time.
“It’s wild,” Spilman-Lawson said. “It’s a difficult show, because Steven Sondheim’s music is intricate and difficult to learn. It’s been an adventure. … I had no idea what to expect. When you put things together in three weeks and Colton’s at the helm, watch out! It’s a lot of work, but it’s all come out great in the end.”
Volke has been so pleased with her experience thus far in the area that she is considering a move to the Shenandoah Valley.
“I have applied to surrounding school districts in hopes of finding an open position teaching music,” she said. “It’s been really great, and I am excited.”
“Company” follows the exploits of Robert, a 25-year-old bachelor who “has absolutely no idea what he wants out of life,” Berry explained. A series of vinettes show Robert’s interactions with his older, married friends, and the three women he is simultaneously dating.
“It’s definitely been difficult, but at the same time the level of talent pooled together to do this show is through the roof,” Berry said. “ I just handed them the material and what came out of it was genius.”
The show is recommended for mature audiences. “It’s a more subtle humor and it’s a more sophisticated humor,” Spilman-Lawson said. “But it’s by no means anything extreme. The mature audience billing is mainly because kids would be bored, because it’s married couples talking about married couple stuff. It’s very funny for people who are old enough to understand what’s going on. That’s what keeps it moving.”