For the first time since Magenta Theater moved to its present location in November 2008, Jaynie Roberts is directing a play for the theater company. Roberts, founder and artistic director of Magenta Theater, is directing the Noël Coward comedy “Present Laughter,” which opened Friday and runs through June 26. For more information, go to http://www.magentatheater.com.
The biggest challenge Roberts faced was adjusting her spatial understanding of the stage at the theater’s current Main Street location in downtown Vancouver. It’s much less wide and deep than the stage at Magenta’s previous location inside Vancouver’s First Baptist Church.
“Scaling everything down has been tricky, but we’ve been able to do it,” said Roberts, a 55-year-old Hazel Dell resident.
Roberts first saw “Present Laughter” several years ago when Dave Roberts — no relation to Jaynie — put it on with his former theater group, Vancouver OnStage. Dave Roberts is now part of the Magenta Theater family and plays leading man Garry Essendine in Jaynie Roberts’ production.
In “Present Laughter,” Garry is a popular and pampered actor busily making preparations for an extended tour. His apartment is invaded by Daphne, a beautiful, stage-struck young woman. When his wife, his partners and his numerous admirers arrive, Garry must try to escape a potentially embarrassing situation.
Audiences will enjoy Coward’s witty dialogue, as well as the situational comedy, Jaynie Roberts said.
“It’s almost a farce,” she said. “There are a lot of misinterpreted situations and people going in and out of doors and being hidden. The audience will be on the edge of their seats thinking, ‘Oh no, what’s going to happen?’”
Vancouver filmmaker prepares for premiere
Ryan Philbrook originally planned only an Alfred Hitchcock-style cameo for himself in his first feature-length film, “Stupid Men.” But Philbrook, a 22-year-old Vancouver resident and 2006 Prairie High School graduate, found that his character, “kind of an evil Jiminy Cricket,” was funny enough to warrant lines.
So Philbrook ended up being not only the writer and director of “Stupid Men,” but he also plays a supporting role in the comedy, shot last summer in Vancouver.
The story line of the movie, about four friends in their early 20s rebelling against the notion that growing up means settling down with an unfulfilling job, a mortgage and loads of weighty responsibilities, is something to which Philbrook said he can relate.
In the movie, though, this attitude is presented as a negative.
“It’s about four incredibly self-absorbed men spending their weekend making bad decisions,” Philbrook said.
The film will screen at Cinetopia in east Vancouver on Saturday, and Philbrook looks forward to the black-tie affair. It comes soon after his younger brother, Greg Philbrook, had a short film in Portland’s Youth Silent Film Festival.
“I think it’s going to be really exciting,” Philbrook said. “The only place I’ve ever seen my movies before is on a computer screen.”
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