Community Players' 'Blithe Spirit' takes Bigfork stage

by Jasmine Linabary
| February 17, 2011 1:00 AM

Seances will be going on in Bigfork for

the next two weekends — at least on stage.

The Bigfork Community Players will open

“Blithe Spirit,” a comedy involving a medium, a novelist and a

backfiring scheme.

The production is directed by Shelby

Moody, who joins the players for the first time. Moody attended the

University of Montana, and got her degree in theater.

She works at Flathead High School in

the theater and business departments.

She was recruited by the BCP when some

of its board members attended one of her shows last year and asked

her if she’d consider doing a production. She proposed “Blithe

Spirit.”

“It’s a fairly well known Broadway

show,” she said. “I thought it would be a good community for the

production.”

The recent Broadway production of the

show starred actors Angela Lansbury and Rupert Everett.

The play, written by Noel Coward,

features the efforts of novelist Charles Condomine who, in an

effort to gather material for a new book, invites the eccentric

Madame Arcati to his home to conduct a seance. The effort goes awry

when it brings back his temperamental first wife, Elvira, who

proceeds to attempt at disrupting his current marriage with Ruth,

who is unable to see her.

“It is nonstop laughter,” Moody

said.

The Bigfork Community Players, a group

of amateur actors and theater enthusiasts that puts on three

productions a year, welcomes people of all ages and experience,

which means a different dynamic than Moody normally works with as a

teacher.

“It has been an absolute blast. There

are people who this is their first time stepping near a stage and

others who have performed with the players for several years,” she

said.

The show has a relatively small cast of

seven. The cast includes Myra Lindborg and Felicia Schraeder of

Bigfork, Terri Terrific and Hana Hoch of Creston, and Kalispell’s

Kelli and Aaron Turner and Colton Christensen, known for his roles

with the Bigfork Playhouse Children’s Theatre.

“It’s really fun,” Moody said. “I had a

vision in my head what Madame Arcati would be like and the woman

who plays the role just captures that character unbelievably

well.”

The show, a family-friendly production,

will be on stage at 8 p.m. Feb 18, 19, 25 and 26 and at 2 p.m. Feb.

20 and 27 at the Bigfork Center for the Performing Arts.

“If you just want an absolutely

roll-in-the-aisles type of show, you need to come see it,” she

said.

Tickets are $15 for adults, $10 for

those ages 65 and older as well as BCP members, and $5 for children

under 12.

Tickets may be purchased at Bigfork

Drug, Sliter’s Ace Hardware in Somers, The Grand Hotel in

Kalispell, at the door or from any cast member.

For more information, visit