Award-winning director Melissa Firlit and hugely popular actor Dan Morrison are returning to the Pagosa Springs Center for the Arts for “Last Call at the Riptide,” Thingamajig Theatre Company’s winter show by local writer Karl Isberg that opens Thursday, March 16.
This new play is set in The Riptide, once the most popular nightclub on the Central Coast, a prime destination that drew patrons from far and wide. Then the local sardine industry crashed, the area became gentrified and The Riptide is on the rocks. The comedy tells the story of the club’s owner and her team as they rally to save her beloved nightspot, facing major obstacles along the way.
Artist favorites return
The production is being directed by Melissa Firlit — an artist greatly admired by Thingamajig audiences for her work as the director of multiple hits from serious dramas like “Red” and “Proof” to blockbuster musicals like “Jekyll & Hyde, “Aida” and “West Side Story.” She also serves as the artistic director of the Thingamajig Playwrights Festival, which develops and workshops the work of emerging playwrights. She returns to Pagosa from her home in New York City.
The “Riptide” cast features five actors including Isberg’s wife Kathleen and daughter Ivy King. Kathleen is well known for her performances in several plays produced by our Curtains Up Pagosa community theatre (previously Music Boosters) including Stephen Sondheim’s “Into the Words” and the Nunsense musical comedy series. Ivy King, a graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Los Angeles, has performed on the Thingamajig stage in several shows including “Legally Blonde” and “Circle Mirror Transformation.”
The cast includes two actors new to Thingamajig audiences. Karisa Bruin, who now lives in Pagosa, performed for more than a decade in the famed Chicago improvision scene and also created a one-woman show. Los Angeles native Dan O’Connor’s show business experience ranges from acting in theatre, TV and film to production and set carpentry.
Tickets available now
“Riptide” opens on Thursday, March 16 and will be performed over two weekends: March 16-19 and 23-25. Evening performances are at 7pm with a Sunday matinee at 2pm on March 19.
You can order tickets for the show on the theatre’s website at pagosacenter.org or by phoning 970-731-SHOW (7469). Tickets are $33.
Thingamajig Theatre Company was cofounded in 2011 by Tim and Laura Moore, executive director. It is an award-winning professional nonprofit 501(c)(3) theatre in residence within the Pagosa Springs Center for the Arts. Its talented actors, directors and production teams come from across the U.S. and around the world to produce musicals, comedies and dramas year-round.