The youth stage ensemble Proximity Theatre has “reimagined, rewritten and retold” its successful 2009 production The Marvellous Story of Shandy Wilkes, and this reborn show, with the name shortened to simply Shandy Wilkes, will open at 8 p.m. Wednesday at the Center Stage Theater in Paseo Nuevo.
The performance will repeat at 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday.
Shandy Wilkes was written by Karina Richardson, directed and choreographed by Kyra Lehman, and features original music by Ken Urbina — the three co-founders of Proximity — who have characterized the show as a kind of “dark fairytale comedy.”
“It’s about a young girl born with mirrors behind her eyes,” Richardson says. “People look at her and see whatever they’re most afraid of.”
Shandy is thus conceived in more or less the same vein as what Jorge Luis Borges called “necessary monsters,” like the dragon and the unicorn. Not surprisingly, a dragon and a unicorn put in cameo appearances in her tale.
Shandy’s role is passive; the drama, humor and fear are driven by the people she encounters.
The Proximity production is performed by Jake Himovitz, Gabriela London, Chiara Perez del Campo, Siena Perez del Campo, Karina Richardson, Eliana Schiffer and Ian Wexler. The musicians are Ben Himovitz, Chris Lisanti, Ken Urbina and Zach Wallace.
Tickets to Shandy Wilkes are $20 for general admission and $15 for children age 10 or younger. For tickets and show times, click here or call the Center Stage box office at 805.963.0408.
— Gerald Carpenter covers the arts as a Noozhawk contributing writer. He can be reached at gerald.carpenter@gmail.com.