‘SOME PIG’

WASHINGTON — The Harp Players will perform Charlotte’s Web this week at the Washington Community Theatre, continuing a tradition of yearly performances for the nonprofit group founded in 1999.

Director Mike McNurlen said he hoped the show would have a broad appeal.

“It’s a children’s show I think everybody can relate to, top to bottom, whatever the age group,” he said. “It’s a great show with a great message about friendship and love and all that good stuff. It’s a good-feel show.”

After seven weeks of rehearsal, the entire crew has put a tremendous amount of work into the roughly 90-minute production. McNurlen reread the book by E. B. White for the first time in decades to better understand its characters, and offered considerable scrap wood from his own barn to help build an impressive set designed by Brett Swift.

He said the result was a fully realized performance of the well-known story from children’s literature.

“You have to tell it in your own way, and I think we’re doing a really nice job of that,” McNurlen said. “Most of the folks in the audience already know the back story of it, but then some don’t. You’ve got two sets of audience members, you’ve got your children who will laugh at the children parts, and then the adults will laugh at some of the adult humor that gets put in there.”

It’s a first time directing the Harp Players for McNurlen, who has acted with the group before and is the speech coach at Keota High School.

He said the adult troupe of actors offered a similar directing experience, but that the more experienced cast members offered valuable insight.

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“They learn in a different way, or they’ve been directed in a different way where, the kids, they’ve only been directed by me,” McNurlen said. “They may have a certain way they like to do it, and it’s not a battle, it’s more of a back-and-forth (with) good input. It’s a different community of theater.”

The nonprofit group donates proceeds from its shows to local causes every year.

For this show, McNurlen said the money would benefit PAWS & More, an animal shelter in Washington.

“They’re moving to a new location, and I thought it was fitting and they did too,” he said. “With all the animals involved in the show, it was just kind of fitting to make sure they got some of that money.”

Charlotte’s Web will run March 21, 22 and 23 at 7:30 p.m., with a matinee on March 24 at 2:30 p.m.

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com