Sea Glass Stage Company will celebrate spring with The 39 Steps, which will run May 2-18, Fridays through Sundays, at the historic Coligny Theatre in Coligny Plaza on Hilton Head Island.
The hilarious farce pokes more than a bit of fun at 1930s-style whodunit spy thrillers as it follows a boring, average man, Richard Hannay, through a series of wild events that resulted from a simple outing to a theatre show.
The madcap fun begins with a beautiful woman who turns out to be a secret agent and hurtles through a stage act featuring a couple of con artists, followed by hilarious underwear salesmen on a rumbling steam train, bumbling policemen, an amazing escape, two more beautiful women, a plane crash, a sinister man missing part of a finger, an attempted murder … and that’s just the first act!
Richard Hannay (Kyle Price) is startled when the beautiful Annabella (Ashley Gonzalez) collapses across his lap in rehearsals for The 39 Steps at Sea Glass Stage Company. The local production runs May 2-18 at Coligny Theatre.
The play is among the zaniest choices of theatrical productions for community theatres. Last year, when Jessica Walck was asked if she would direct a show for the Sea Glass spring production, she accepted and suggested The 39 Steps. Walck has appeared on the Sea Glass stage twice, first as Beth in Dinner With Friends last October and as Diana Goodman in Next to Normal this past February.
“There are different reasons to do theatre – to inform, to tell a story, to highlight social issues, to laugh,” Walck said about her choice for this show. “Dynamic comedic timing is my favorite thing to do. Hearing an audiences’ laughter is such a gift.”
Walck is an experienced director who recently moved to the Lowcountry from Naples, Florida, where she was mentored by Dallas Dunnagan at The Naples Players theatre.
Dunnagan’s family name is synonymous with early community theatre on Hilton Head Island. Her parents, Bill and Peggy Dunnagan, opened and nurtured the first community theatre on the island, the Hilton Head Playhouse, in the 1970s. Dallas eventually took the reins and continued to build the organization until – and through – the opening of the Self Family Arts Center, now known as the Arts Center of Coastal Carolina, in 1996.
The four actors in this show are all new to Sea Glass Stage Company, though all have a considerable amount of stage experience.
One of the performers, Travis McKinley, acted in numerous shows directed by Dunnagan in the early days of the Playhouse. He is pleased to now work with Walck. McKinley is known for his comedic timing and his intense study of character development in every role. In his first show with Sea Glass, McKinley plays 12 characters, from policeman to conman, elder housekeeper to hopeless romantic innkeeper, an underwear salesman and a professor.
His sometime sidekick is Karen Boyle, another newcomer to Sea Glass and to the island, who plays 14 characters, most of them in tandem with McKinley as a policeman and salesman, but also as the brilliant Mr. Memory, a farmer, the sheriff, and an elder master of ceremonies, among others. Boyle’s previous experience includes some time as a stand-up comedian.
On a crowded train, Richard Hannay (Kyle Price) runs to escape the bumbling police (Travis McKinley and Karen Boyle) as Pamela (Ashley Gonzalez) considers how she can avoid further trouble. The local Sea Glass Stage Company production of The 39 Steps runs May 2-18 at Coligny Theatre.
The boring, average man around whom the story centers, Richard Hannay, is played by Kyle Price, who recently appeared in May River Theatre’s The Full Monty. Price got his start in theatre in college as a way to get credit for community service for another class. Turns out he got a role right away and enjoyed the experience. He also has performed locally in several productions with May River, and with Main Stage Community Theatre, where he also serves as a board member.
Ashley Gonzalez rounds out the cast, portraying the three beautiful women who connect with Hannay along his journey, each of them more stunning and captivating than the last. Gonzalez was raised on Hilton Head and began ballet training at Hilton Head Dance School at the ripe age of 5. She danced with Savannah Ballet Theatre from 2015-2024, and has performed in local theatre, most recently in Cabaret at May River Theatre.
Audiences are sure to offer round after round of laughter over the course of this nonstop outlandish tale and the antics of its numerous characters.
“This is a love letter to theatre,” Walck said. “It doesn’t take itself too seriously.”
The 39 Steps was written by Patrick Barlow, adapted from an original concept by Simon Corble and Nobby Dimon (a parody of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1935 film), and first produced in 2005.
The local production will run May 2-18 at Sea Glass Stage at Coligny Theatre, 1 N. Forest Beach Drive on Hilton Head Island. Shows are 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 2 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $35 adult, $20 student. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit sgstage.org/tickets, or follow Sea Glass Stage at Coligny on Facebook and Instagram.
