Even in a reflective moment, Jennifer Skiff can’t quite come up with the exact reason why she started auditioning for plays.
It was partly that her mom did community theater.
It was partly that her girls were teenagers.
It certainly wasn’t that she was an instant success.
“I’ve tried out for five or six plays for roles that didn’t involve singing or dancing but I never got a bite,” Skiff said. “I tried out for “Steel Magnolias” and I even bought a CD to help me learn a Southern accent. Nothing.”
Finally, for the first time at 48 years old, Skiff will get her lucky break on stage. And in the lead role, no less.
Skiff plays Gus in the romantic comedy “Cookin’ With Gus,” which opens tonight and runs through Feb. 23 at Whidbey Playhouse.
Skiff said she got the role because when the director saw her, she said, “There’s my strong woman.”
“She had her heart set on me,” Skiff said.
Sometimes that’s all it takes.
As it also sometimes goes in theater, Skiff hadn’t tried out for the lead. She tried out for Carmen, Gussie’s wacky, free-spirited friend, a role that Skiff, who dresses in hippie clothes and has short magenta hair, said suited her better.
But director Linda Walbeck said she picked Skiff for the lead for her vibrancy and energy. And Skiff seemed better suited with the leading man Walbeck had picked out to play Walter. After all, the show is about romance, not about cooking, Walbeck said.
“Cookin’ with Gus” is about a couple who have been together 18 years, and each has their own agendas. Gus, a famous food columnist and cookbook author, wants to be the next Julia Child and have her own cooking show. Walter wants to marry her. Then there’s Carmen, the crazy neighbor who is a bit of a lush.
“The show is going to have people leaving going ‘Ahhh,’” said Walbeck, who is directing solo for the first time at Whidbey Playhouse. “It’s “I Love Lucy” with a warm and fuzzy romantic element. It’s sophisticated yet wacky.”
In addition to Skiff as Gus, the Jim Brochu comedy stars Dave Myers as Walter, Jim Otruba as Bernie, the intrusive but not unkind agent of Gus, and Julie McNutt as Carmen.
Skiff said some of the highlights of the show include hilarious slapstick scenes, solid acting by the cast and a warm story with a lot of comedy.
Though blown over by the amount of work preparing for the play has been, Skiff said the experience has been fun. But has it been worth it? She said, half in jest, that she’d have to see how much applause she receives before she commits to an answer.
“Will I audition again? I ask myself that too,” Skiff said. “I will have to wait till it’s over to see how the payoff goes.”
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