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Guys & Dolls features plenty of CapU talent

Guys & Dolls, Waterfront Theatre, Wednesday, Aug. 8. Show 8 p.m., runs until Aug. 25 (fightingchanceproductions.ca).
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Guys & Dolls, Waterfront Theatre, Wednesday, Aug. 8. Show 8 p.m., runs until Aug. 25 (fightingchanceproductions.ca).

There are the tough guys, the gangsters, mobsters and crapshooters, and there are the dolls, the hot box girls and the sweet little things.

The challenge for the director of Guys & Dolls, Jennifer Suratos, was to equalize the sexes in this Broadway classic that often gives more weight to the male characters.

Guys & Dolls is based on the short stories of Damon Runyon who wrote about New York during prohibition and the Depression, and his cast of characters included gamblers, hustlers and gangsters. Because it’s a Broadway classic that has won several Tonys and has had several revivals, directing it was a “daunting” task, said Suratos, who is moving up from an assistant director to director role in this production that launches on Granville Island this weekend.

“It’s a classic for a reason with tough guy numbers, love story numbers, hot box dance numbers that feed nicely into each other,” Suratos said.

But traditional productions of Guys & Dolls often focus on the big male characters, the “guys,” so Suratos wanted to give just as much heft to the “dolls” in the play. Two of the crapshooters are played by women as are a mob boss and a police lieutenant, and these aren’t women in drag, but actual female characters, Suratos explained.

The setting for Guys & Dolls is New York City in the dirty thirties, the Depression era when everyone was trying to make an easy buck and just survive as jobs were scarce. Often the costumes for this Broadway musical are designed to be cartoonish, but Suratos wanted the look to be more authentic and reflective of the times, and to take it out of the pop comic art palette.

“I wanted it to be more dull and less cartoonish,” she said. “It’s a little drab because it was a desperate time.”

Fighting Chance Productions is putting on the classic Broadway musical loaded with North Shore talent with Capilano University students and alumni sprinkled throughout the cast.

Several of the performers are currently students at Capilano University’s musical theatre program: Haley Allen – who plays two characters – Simon Abraham, Kate Krynowsky and Argel Monte de Ramos, who is in his second year of the program and plays Nicely-Nicely Johnson. The cast also includes several grads of the Capilano program, Ranae Miller playing the lead character Sarah Brown, Charley Deagnon in the lead role of Nathan Detroit, Colton Fyfe and Sari Rosofsky.

Capilano University’s program focuses on all three aspects vital to musical theatre, singing, acting and dancing, so it produces a lot of talent for the local musical theatre scene, Suratos explained.

Allen, who is going into her third year at Capilano University’s musical theatre program, left her plans of becoming an occupational therapist to pursue musical theatre after seeing how it taught teens and kids to deal with shyness and anxiety.

In Guys & Doll, Allen plays two characters, a gangster named Liver Lips Louise and a hot box girl, a showgirl of the time. The characters are very different but using posture and physicality in addition to a change in costume, she’s able to move from one character to the other during the play.

“When I’m a gangster, it’s really gritty and low – it’s more harsh,” Allen said. “Hot box girls are fun and flirty and up tempo. It’s a really nice switch in the show.”

For Allen, Guys & Dolls is a fun production because there’s a strong story line for the lead couples, but the whole ensemble has to work together to move the story along, and some of the storyline just develops with the music, dance and movement.

“You can feel the story – you can feel the energy in the show,” Allen said. 

Allen grew up in the northern B.C. town of Smithers which had a great high school theatre program and a director who pushed her actors beyond their limits. Allen took a year off after high school, and choreographed Beauty and the Beast at her former high school. She saw how shy kids grew in confidence, overcame their anxiety and got excited about a production and she realized musical theatre was her passion in life. Growing up, Allen had a lot of anxiety and suffered from panic attacks, but music and dance helped her get through it – when she felt anxiety, she’d write a song about it or put on some music and dance. This has got her considering a career in theatre therapy as a long-term goal.

The CapU program, Allen explained, teaches its students how to be part of a theatre ensemble – 25 per cent of their marks are based on their professionalism, being prepared, rehearsing, researching and not slacking off.

“You know what your job is in the cast – what should I be ready for, what should I prepare for,” Allen said. “And the faculty pushes us to a level that makes us work hard.”

Suratos and the cast and crew completed a tech weekend as they approach their first preview audience on Friday.

“I didn’t yell a lot, so that’s good,” Suratos said. “You want to plan for surprises, but you can’t.”

Guys & Doll is directed by Suratos and put on by Fighting Chance Productions. The musical direction is by Marquis Byrd and it’s choreographed by Rachael Grace Carlson and Amanda Lau.

Guys & Doll opens on Aug. 8 at Waterfront Theatre on Granville Island, 1412 Cartwright St., and continues until Aug. 25 with previews on Aug. 3, 4 and 7 at 8 p.m. Tickets start at $25. For more information visit fightingchanceproductions.ca.