Lake City theater prepares for voyage to ‘South Pacific’

The Lake City Community Theatre recently held auditions for “South Pacific,” which will be presented in March, and selected a cast of 45 that will begin rehearsing soon.

The tryouts took place Nov. 1 and 2 at the Blanding Street Auditorium.

Ensign Nellie Forbush (Angel Yock), is a naive U.S. Navy Nurse. Nellie has fallen in love with middle-aged French plantation owner Emile de Becque (Happy Pendergraft), even though she has only known him for a short time.

Emile has two half-Polynesian children, Ngana (Anna Caison Boyd) and Jerome (Matthew Bryan). Even though everyone else is worried about the outcome of the war, Nellie explains to Emile that she is still convinced everything will turn out all right.

Meanwhile, the restless American Sailors, led by Luther Billis (Bill Kennedy) lament the absence of women or combat to relieve their boredom. U.S. Navy nurses are commissioned officers and are therefore off limits to the enlisted men. There is one non-naval woman on the island, a middle-aged Tonkinese grass-skirt seller nicknamed “Bloody Mary” (Susan Cox).

Lt. Joe Cable of the U.S. Marine Corps (Kevin Buchanan) arrives from Guadacanal after being ordered by his colonel to take part in a dangerous spy mission that might help turn the tide of the war against Japan.

Bloody Mary convinces Cable to go to Bali Ha’I, where she introduces him to a beautiful young girl named Liat (Heather Stevenson). Liat reveals that Bloody Mary is, in fact, her mother. This is the reason Bloody Mary so quickly showed interest in Cable — she thought he would make a good husband for Liat.
Eventually rejected by Nellie and with nothing to lose, Emile agrees to join Joe on his dangerous spy mission behind Japanese lines.

A major offensive, “Operation Alligator,” gets under way, and the previously idle sailors, including Billis, go off to battle.

Meanwhile, Nellie learns of Cable’s death and, more important, that Emile is missing. She is distraught and decides that if he returns, she will marry him, Polynesian children or not.

She throws off her prejudices and spends time with Jerome and Ngana. Emile returns home to the now-understanding Nellie and his — soon to be their—children.

The musical is being directed by A. Glen Gourley Jr., who is a professor of theater arts and speech and director of theater at Francis Marion University.

Gourley has worked with the Lake City Community Theatre since 1989, when he directed the theater’s original production, “The Music Man.” For its 20th anniversary, the theater performed that musical again in March with 80 children, youths and adults participating.

“South Pacific” is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “Tales of the South Pacific,” by James A. Michener.

The music is by Richard Rodgers, lyrics are by Oscar Hammerstein II, and book is by Hammerstein and Joshua Logan.