Woodinville Repertory's Second Play of the Season Opens

"Almost, Maine," which will open at the Woodinville Repertory Theatre starting June 8, is not a play almost about the state of Maine. Or the Battleship Maine. Or the University of Maine or Maine lobsters.

It's a funny, moving romantic comedy about love: Love found, love squandered, love stumbled on, love lost, love retrieved, love abandoned, love discovered. All on at the same moment in time on a star-lit, cold wintry night. A night when the Northern Lights are out above the tiny community of Almost, located deep in Aroostook County, Maine's northernmost county.

The show runs over four weekends at the Denali Slab & Tile Studio, 16120 Woodinville-Redmond Road NE, Suite 12, Woodinville.

Performances are Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., with Sunday matinees on June 10, 17 and 24. Closing night is Saturday, June 30. You can buy tickets online at www.woodinvillerep.org. You can also access the site through Facebook.

Playwright John Cariani tells us that all of the scenes in the show take place at exactly the same time. It's a show about what happens in a heartbeat.

It features a woman pitching a tent in a potato field hoping to see her philandering husband ascending into heaven. She carries her broken heart in a bag, she tells the potato field's owner. He happens to be a repairman. He fixes things, he tells her. Even hearts.  A young man confesses his love to his lady friend of several years -- who has little clue that she can generate that kind of emotion.  A young man at Ma Dudley's Boarding House literally can't feel pain. But this night, he is kissed by another resident down in the laundry room and suddenly . . . One couple finally realizes that they've fallen out of love.

This is a play with history.  Cariani is from Presque Isle, located in the far north of Maine, and used to write little monologues about Maine that he would use at auditions in New York. He's best known as a morgue technician on television's "Law and Order" and was nominated for a Tony award for his performance as Motel the tailor in the 2004 revival of "Fiddler on the Roof."

Eventually, he worked the material into a play in nine vignettes with 19 characters at the Cape Cod Theatre Project in 2002. It had its premiere in Portland, Maine, and went to off-Broadway and then found its true niche. People have loved "Almost, Maine" in places like Presque Isle; Tamworth, N.H.; Orlando; Phoenix; and Mannheim, Germany, even Dubai, Australia, Mexico City and South Korea.

And it has worked. In 2010, it was the most produced play at American high schools, beating out Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream."

The production is directed by Marsha Stueckle, a 20-year veteran of shows on the East Side. This is her fourth directing job with the Woodinville Rep.

The Woodinville Rep has cast six wonderful actors to play the 19 parts:

Jontom Abbett. A University of Washington graduate, he is a trained violinist and plans to go to graduate school at the University of Southern California.

Adara Toop. She's a graduate in drama from the University of Washington and acted locally. She's playing a sorority pledge in the upcoming "21 and Over," by the writers of "The Hangover."

Jason Rasmussen. He's lived in Seattle since 1999. He has acted regularly in Seattle and Los Angeles in such roles as Lennie in "Of Mice and Men" and Nathan Detroit in a Seattle Musical Theatre production of "Guys and Dolls."

Joy Yaholkovsky. A Woodinville native, she has worked in the film industry and in theater in and around Seattle. She's appeared as Ado Annie in the King's Players production of "Oklahoma" and Meg in "Little Women" and Annie Sullivan in "The Miracle Worker" at the Attic Theatre.

Kevin Dailey. A veteran in Seattle theater, he has appeared in the Freehold Theatre Lab's 2011 production of "Pericles" and "Amadeus" at the Second Story Repertory Theatre. 

Jennifer Makenas. Almost, Maine is Jennifer’s Woodinville Rep Theater debut, and she couldn’t be more excited to be a part of such a talented and wildly entertaining cast!  While she loves portraying princesses and bubbly characters of all kinds, most recently as The Princess in The Princess and the Pea with Second Story Rep and Minnie Fay in Hello Dolly with Northwest Savoyards, she is really enjoying playing the very real characters (with a few quirks) of Almost, Maine. Special thanks to Curtis for all of his support.

--Information from Woodinville Repertory Theatre