“Stories by Starlight” is a series of readership theater minimalist plays that will reawaken your theatrical senses with something different every week between now and October 3rd in the Orinda Starlight Village Theater (OrSVP). The theater company has decided to do something different from the ordinary in case the county and or medical prognosticators revise plans again to close open venues. Their clever alternative is a theatrical presentation style that can be performed live almost at will. The actors have read and rehearsed their lines and will go on stage still reading (in part) from scripts and act out the story as if it were a “dress” rehearsal, instead of an actual fully staged production. This way the theater can continue presenting the shows to keep community theater alive in Orinda.
In addition, the theater can temporarily survive financially more easily without the cost of full stage rental fees, building sets, and fabricating full costumes to create the feel of typical live theater. The company has come up with a special workable “deal” that the Orinda Park system feels more comfortable with. Basically, it means, play and pay as you go!
This weekend, “Seven Keys to Baldpate”, a mystery thriller and one of the most innovative and successful plays written by George M. Cohan (and based on the play by Earl Derr Biggers), seared into success via seven very successful theatrical plays, in which five were filmed, including the silent one in 1917 performed by Cohan himself, with Douglas MacLean in 1925, with Richard Dix in 1929, with Gene Raymond in 1935, more easily with, again in 1947 with Phillip Terry and finally filmed as rewritten with a slightly different plot in 1983 as The House of Long Shadows. Two Television adaptations appeared, one in 1946 and again 1961. It even spawned a series of radio shows. It must have been provocative to generate this many renewals.
In this production, novelist Billy Magee (Ken Sollazzo) makes a bet with a very wealthy friend that he can write a 10,000 word novel within 24 hours. In order to provide the solitude necessary to accomplish such a feat, he retires in the dead of winter to a remote abandoned inn called the Baldpate Inn. He locks himself in, believing he has the SOLE KEY to the premises! However, during the night, he is surprised to find his efforts to create this 10,000 word novel by an invasion of unexpected visitors; a corrupt mayor; a crooked cop; a feisty feminine reporter; a gang of criminals and even a hermit named Peter. Surprise after surprise startles our novelist as a single key now becomes “seven separate keys to the Baldpate mystery!”
A quick trip to the theater’s website at www.orsvp.org will reveal in greater detail the story content of the three remaining shows in this series, the admission fees, and themes presented in this voyage into innovative theatrical presentation style. You can experience theater in its basic form as this company will entertain you for a very minimal cost. Look under the heading “Stories by Starlight” for more information. This outdoor amphitheater is located at 28 Orinda Way (in the park next to the library). Free parking is just an easy walk to the theater. Regular admission is $20 each, and only $10 each for seniors and children (cash or check at the park please).
In that this theater is an open-air amphitheater in a park, Covid requirements are simply that masks are required regardless of vaccination status and patrons are encouraged to maintain respectful and sensible distance from others attending who are not in your group AT ALL TIMES. And finally, please do not visit the amphitheater if you at all feel ill! Finally, dress warmly for an outdoor environment, as it may cool significantly after the sun goes down. This is a fun-filled, rough-hewn theater environment that I have attended and enjoyed for over 30 years.
