They’re back!
The definition of a truly “venerable” Vashon theater ensemble, the Golden Oldies Players will return to present a free staged reading of a new play by Jeanie Davies Okimoto, “Trouble at Harmony Hill,” at 2 p.m. Saturday, March 15, at Bethel Church.
If you’ve followed Vashon’s theater scene for, let’s say, the past three or four decades, you know at least some of the cast members: Rich Wiley, Patricia Kelly, Gretchen Neffenger, Bill Kirschner, Peter Kreitner, Marjon McDermott, Dianna Daniel, and Michael Monteleone.
With the expection of Monteleone, who is only now replanting theater roots that never fully took hold when he was a much younger man, the group has vast experience on stages both on Vashon and elsewhere.
What’s brought them all back together now? Their ages, for one thing — all are in their 70s and 80s now. And last year, Okimoto — who is also a fairly freshly minted octogenarian — noted the dearth of roles for older actors and decided to do something about that by creating the Golden Oldies Players.
The author of 24 books and eight plays, Okimoto sat down to do what she does best. She started to write, with Kelly chiming in as a trusted advisor.
The Golden Oldies Players company debuted in a February 2024 staged reading of “Walter’s Muse” — an adaptation of Okimoto’s 2008 novel of the same name, which Okimoto billed as “an old-people’s romantic comedy.” That play also featured members of the Vashon Ukulele Band — a group that will again make a heartstrings-tugging appearance in “Trouble at Harmony Hill.”
This time, Okimoto calls her play an “unromantic comedy.” But its more that that.
The play tells a highly relateable story for Vashon’s aging population: set in the present time in a residential retirement home, a group of friends (Kelly, Neffenger, Kirschner and McDermott) must navigate the arrival of a new resident on their floor: a loud and disagreeable man in a bright red ball cap (Kreitner) whose outspoken political views stand in the glaring contrast to theirs.
At a rehearsal last week, this reporter got a first glimpse at the delightful play, filled with laugh-out-loud comic genius but also aching tenderness and unexpected revelations about trauma, loss and redemption.
The acting — as you might well guess I am about to say — is superb.
Kelly, Neffenger, Kirschner and McDermott, as the besieged and outraged residents of Harmony Hill, inhabited their roles with both wit and raw sensitivity, and Kreitner provided fresh proof of an old theatrical rule: if you need someone to play a villain, just look around and cast the nicest actor you know. They always make the best bad guys.
Daniel also fully inhabited her smaller but extremely pivotal role, providing a plot twist in the play that shouldn’t be spoiled by any more detailed description here. Wiley and Monteleone narrate the show.
Go see the free show at 2 p.m. on March 15, at Bethel Church. The Golden Oldies Players, “Trouble at Harmony Hill, and the Vashon Ukulele Band — deserve your wild applause and appreciation.
(Standing, left to right) Actors Peter Kreitner, Patricia Kelly, Bill Kirschner, Gretchen Neffenger, Dianna Daniel, Marjon McDermott, and Michael Monteleone, after a rehearsal attended by (kneeling, left to right) Elizabeth Shepherd and Pam Ingalls. (Joe Okimoto photo)
