Almost, Maine Comes Home to the Somers Theater Company

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On Saturday November 15, the Somers High School Theater Company Presented Almost, Maine and amore was in the air. “The play is about love,” said Evan Aronoff. But the actor who portrayed “East” was quick to avoid pigeonholing the play as a straight up romcom.

“A bunch of metaphors,” said Aronoff, “it’s all the aspects of love, the hardships, the good parts and the bad.”

Written by John Cariani and directed here by Rachel Vetterman, there’s more amusement than laughter, and each of the nine vignettes mostly leave the love connections open-ended. Plenty to think about, the low key presentation means the actors really have to deliver. “It’s more pressure. But it makes us want to work harder. It makes us want to commit, really perform and act as hard as we can,” said Aronoff.

An end result that couldn’t be missed on the part of all the actors, and the small afternoon crowd didn’t throw the players. “The time makes for a bit of awkward pauses. But we know it’s funny and laugh in our own heads,” Aronoff assured.

Charlie McGurk, on the other hand, prefers to put the audience out of his head. Playing Chad, he said, “The whole crowd looking at me, I’m very grateful that we can’t see their faces, because you feel the pressure.”

So being blind makes his method, and the actor knows the comfort level extends to the whole cast. “As long as we’re having fun, the audience will have fun,” said McGurk.

In Chad’s case, hitting the dirt was part of the process. “Chad and Randy, they fall,” he said. “Gravity was pulling us together, because they were falling in love. So we fell on the stage.”

McGurk wasn’t the only one delivering physical comedy either. “I got hit by an ironing board,” joked Caleb Kandel.

Fortunately, “Steve” didn’t have the capacity to feel pain, and given the trials and tribulations of love, his character came to the right place. Blossoming, failing and people working on it,” he said, “The play is all about relationships.”

The lack of big flashy scenes and comedic outbursts is something the actor noticed too, and Kandel praised the cast for making the adjustment. “We were able to move the audience, and sometimes we even did so without dialogue,” he asserted.

Of course, stars didn’t just appear on stage. Tim Harkins was among the runners who hustled the props onto the stage. “You only have moments to get things on and off,” he said. “Sometimes it doesn’t go as planned, and you have to adapt.”

Less expedient, Harkins helped construct the props too. “I like being able to build stuff from the ground up and see it evolve,” said the handyman. “So it’s really gratifying to see that happen and everyone putting in the work.”

As for Jenna Jagr, she didn’t have to put in so much heavy lifting. However, the sound engineer still had to grind and E-cueing was her grist. “Actors have lows, highs and middles, which you want to balance out to make their mic sound crisp,” Jagr explained.

Alongside, Amber Sinagra reported that the day was pitch perfect on the sound front. “Everything went smooth,” she assured.

One show to go, Anya Khurana let the 2PM showing act as a springboard. “It is kind of a booster - especially since we can take what we’ve done at 2 O’Clock and improve on it as much as we can,” said Khurana.

Playing Marvalyn, her scene with Steve (Kandel) dovetails real life. “We’re supposed to be a little bit awkward with each other,” she clarified. “That sort of made It easier because we don’t know each other that well. But doing rehearsals, we made sure we got good at working together, and our chemistry followed.”

No easy process, the diligence alleviates Allison Giron Ruiz from the fear of making mistakes. “I manage by practicing and practicing until I get it perfect,” said Ruiz, who portrayed Rhonda.

Zavier Tejeda puts in the work too and doesn’t let all the emotions of high school go to waste. In his vignette with Hope, betrayal draws an easy parallel to daily life as a teenager. “Whatever annoyed me on a particular day,” he said. “I’ll bring it in and pretend Hope (Emily Lopatka) is the reason.”

But even when love reigns over the whole production, tension can still permeate, and that’s where Jason Graessle comes in. Sound engineer, he’s comic relief for the whole affair. “I always try to lighten the situation,” he said, and besides the jokes, Graessle blasts the soundtrack to Hamilton.

Complete approval of cast and crew, the two hour running time and three hour interim won’t require a recharge, according to Aronoff “We’re tired, but we’re going to push through,” concluded the actor.

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