Brhel Seeks to Release the Kokens for 39 STEPS

Phantom Cicada Theatre Company is staging an outdoor production of the stage spoof The 39 Steps. It's a maddeningly precise show to try to bring off with any level of success at all. Four characters play over 150 different characters in a show that is designed to more or less adhere completely to Hitchcock's classic film with cleverly reverent references to other works by the director. 

And Drew Brhel is directing a production of the show outside. This could get tricky. Granted, the stage itself is elevated and covered and everything. Kind of a controlled environment . . . possibly as controlled as you can possibly get outside, but it's still an outdoor production with all of the additional issues that tend to crop-up in an outdoor production. 

So Brhel, who has proved himself to be talented both onstage and off as an actor and a director,  recently announced that he is looking for kokens to aid with the production. Don't know what a koken is? Picture a ninja. Okay . . . but instead of being a stealthy assassin dressed head to toe in black robes, a token is a stealthy stage hand dressed head to toe in black robes . . .there to quietly and efficiently aid in the productions. They're there and the audience knows they're there but they're like the wind or gravity . . . a force of nature. (Ideally.) As described by Brhel in a recent call for talent on Facebook: "They're the black-clad folks who interact with the so-called 'regular' actors in a play, and whom the audience sort of agrees not to notice." So in addition to seeing four actors playing 150 different characters in an outdoor theatre environment, audiences will also be able to see a group of actors playing . . . the rest of the environment. This sounds like this could be a very, very cool production if Brhel and company can get it to work. 

SummerStage's production of The 39 Steps runs August 30th - September 14-15th at Kettle Morraine State Park. For more information, visit SummerStage online.