TAKING STEPS Opens March 1 At Lakewood Theatre Co

Lakewood Theatre Company continues its 66th season of live theatre with Alan Ayckbourn's comedy, Taking Steps. In Ayckbourn's frenetic story, a bucket manufacturer is thinking of buying the house he and his ex-ballerina dancer wife are already leasing. However, the wife is preparing to de-camp, unable to stand life in the house or the husband!

Performances begin March 1 and continue through April 7, 2019, playing Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights at 7:30 PM, one Wednesday performance (March 20) at 7:30 PM, Sunday evenings at 7:00 PM (Mar. 17 & 31), and Sunday matinees at 2:00 PM (Mar. 3, 10, 24, 31 and Apr. 7). The show's title sponsor is Don & Jesse Adams. The directorial sponsor is The Springs Living in Lake Oswego.

The theatre is located at Lakewood Center for the Arts, 368 S. State St. in Lake Oswego. Ticket prices are $34/adults and $32/seniors. Other discounts are available for students and groups. For additional information and tickets, call the Lakewood Box Office at (503) 635-3901 or order online at www.lakewood-center.org.

Special note: On Wednesday, March 20, the theatre continues its program called WOW: 25/35. For audience-goers 35 and under, tickets are priced at $25 each. Use the code WOW25 when ordering tickets online to get this special discount. At this performance, there will be a complimentary wine tasting one hour before curtain courtesy of Justin Wines. OLCC rules apply! Bring your ID for the tasting!

The story: Taking Steps, refers to the stairs on which the characters keep climbing and descending to outlying parts of a drafty, dusty old Victorian house. The multistoried house is also a storied one; a former brothel, haunted, it is said, by one Scarlet Lucy. "If she takes a fancy to you," one character tells another, "she'll climb into bed with you." The downside is that the chosen gent will wake up dead in the morning!

Apart from the ghost Scarlet Lucy, the house is occupied by a rich and hard-drinking manufacturer of buckets (Jeremy Southard); his wife, a dancer of no noticeable talent (Christy Drogosch); her brother, who wants to open a fishing shop (Garland Lyons); the brother's fiancée, who has lately been arrested for soliciting (Shawna Nordman); a lawyer, who gives no sign of having a legal mind or any other sort (Spencer Conway); and a giggling builder (Eric Nepom) who is desperate to sell the house to the bucket manufacturer.

LTC's production of Taking Steps is directed by Brenda Hubbard, the stage manager is Heather Taylor, scenic design is by John Gerth, sound design is by Kurt Herman, lighting design is by Juniper & Nate Zwainlest, costume design is by Grace O'Malley, properties design is by Grady Penna, assistant stage manager is Addie Underwood, and the producer is Steve Knox.