On stage at Harlequin Productions for Valentine’s Day, How Much the Heart Can Hold is a multi-faceted celebration of love featuring scenes, poetry, quotes and even love notes penned by audience members.
Adding to the romance: The cast is made up of acting couples Austin and Jonah Barnett, Heather and Michael Christopher, and Brian and Jana Tyrrell.
“It’s such a fun piece,” said Bryan Willis, who created the show with the late Linda Kalkwarf and included pieces by other local writers. “It’s a mix of scenes and readers’ theater. I started collecting all these quotes from around the world and from all different times from Rumi to Toni Morrison.”
Austin and Jonah Barnett, courtesy the Barnetts
Jana and Brian Terrell, courtesy the Terrells
Michael and Heather Christopher, courtesy the Christophers
Heart, produced by the Northwest Playwrights Alliance, wasn’t written for Valentine’s Day, but Saturday’s performance will be the play’s second annual Feb. 14 show at Harlequin’s State Theater.
“Last year, we had single people there, and we had couples of all different ages,” Willis said. “We had people on their first dates and people who’d been married for 48 years.
“This is not a play I could have written 30 years ago,” he said. “The nature of love changes as we age. We have successes and failures. … In the course of the play, we follow this couple who meet as grade-school students, and we follow them until they are in their golden years.”
Those roles are played by the Tyrrells, who’ll celebrate their 44th wedding anniversary in June. The couple, reprising the roles they played last year, are relishing the chance to add acting together to their Valentine’s Day traditions of flowers, candy and cards.
“It’s always fun to be in a production together,” Brian Tyrrell said. “Doesn’t happen often enough. … The play affords us the chance to play characters that go on a shared journey from childhood to retirement age. That’s been a fun challenge.”
Also back for a second year are Austin and Jonah Barnett, who’ve been together for ten years and married for four.
“We always try to do something sweet for each other on Valentine’s Day, but it’s also a day of love where we like to celebrate everyone in our lives that we adore,” Jonah Barnett said. “That can be little text messages to friends, making people cards or getting our moms chocolates.”
Being in Heart fits right in with that inclusive spirit. “It feels rad to be in a show that celebrates love, and we’re doing this because we love the people who put it on,” Jonah said. “Bryan and Kathy (Dorgan, who’s directing) have been our mentors and friends for a long time now. It’s important to do things with people you care about.”
New to the cast are Heather and Michael Christopher, who’ve been married for 27 years. They met while acting together in Olympia Little Theatre’s 1997 Anastasia and married in the theater the following year.
“When I watch Michael and Heather in rehearsal, my mouth hurts from smiling,” Willis said, adding that Drew and Paige Doyle, who were featured last year, had travel plans that interfered with their returning.
Another couple involved with the show: Willis and wife Margo Benedetto, who’ve been married for six years. Benedetto is among the writers who contributed to the script.
And audience members, whether coupled or not, can turn in love letters to be read from the stage after intermission. “It was fun reading them last year,” Willis said. “Some of them were kind of silly and some of them were heartfelt and poetic. It was spontaneous theater.”
WHAT:
How Much the Heart Can Hold
WHEN:
7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 14
WHERE:
Harlequin at The State Theater, 202 Fourth Ave. E., Olympia
TICKETS:
$25
LEARN MORE:
https://harlequinproductions.org/show/how-much-the-heart-can-hold/