The actors over at the Valley Center Stage are gearing up for a fourth wall-breaking comedy about a misunderstood romance and the chaos that ensues. “Becky’s New Car” will open March 4 at the Valley Center Stage in North Bend.
Written by prolific playwright Steven Deitz in 2008, “Becky’s New Car” follows the life of Becky Foster, a woman who is dissatisfied and bored with her life until she meets a wealthy man at a car dealership. An affair ensues and her life is thrown into chaos.
Director Brenden Elwood explained that the show is about decisions made in life and the consequences that can come of them.
“It’s an interesting project, because it’s a fast-paced play about the decisions and choices that you make and the chaos that unfolds,” Elwood said.
“I think the most stand-out thing are the actors, we have an excellent talent pool. From the onset, we put a friendly challenge to dive deep into the characters, let’s really make these characters come to life and make the anarchy seem real and relatable with the audience.”
This is the first production with Valley Center Stage for Jen Anderson, the Snoqualmie actress playing Becky, after 17 years of theater work in the Puget Sound area.
“I wasn’t able to audition for them until this season came up, and so I auditioned and was afforded this amazing part,” Anderson said. “It’s been very collaborative and when people come to see the play, they will see it is a story told from many viewpoints, not just Becky, although there is heavy Becky influence on it.”
Anderson isn’t lying. “Becky’s New Car” is a total of 62 pages and she appears in 45 of them. On top of that, she has multiple long monologues and she is the only person on stage for the first 10 minutes of the show.
In those first minutes, Anderson is able to show off some of the play’s most defining elements. Becky breaks the fourth wall by speaking to the audience and even asks for audience members to help with tasks like putting a bucket under a leaky ceiling. This interaction is designed to get the audience to relate with and believe in Becky.
“There is a great thing about plays that break the fourth wall, as an actor if you are able to connect with the audience on this separate, private level it really helps them buy into your character and what your character is doing,” Elwood said.
“What’s great about Becky is that she has to make these pivotal choices all based on some mistaken understanding between her and somebody else. Her life is at a certain point where she is complacent and not satisfied with that so she needs something new. You really want the audience to go along on the journey so breaking the fourth wall helps them (get) into that.
“It makes those moments where she makes a mistake more gut-wrenching because you are wanting to root for her but at the same time curse her out.”
“Becky’s New Car” will debut at 7:30 p.m. at Valley Center Stage, 119 W. North Bend Way, North Bend, and will run from March 4 to 19 Thursdays through Saturdays.
There will also be a showing at 2 p.m. on Sunday, March 13.
“It’s a fantastic journey and hopefully when people watch it they will see a lot of the metaphors and the things that we have put in,” Elwood Said. “We have directed it so that we are hitting people on a lot of different dynamics when it comes to what’s happening next.”
For tickets and information, visit www.valleycenterstage.org.
