Article released June 2022.
Sisters Kristin Guy and Kelli McAuley get to be in a play together. Just barely.
The twins are cast in Bainbridge Performing Arts’ "Bard at Bloedel” production of William Shakespeare’s "The Comedy of Errors,” which opens June 16th (with a pay-what-you-can preview on opening day) at the picturesque Bloedel Reserve.
Typecast, you might actually say, since Guy and McAuley are playing … twins. The two play siblings separated as infants by a tempest that wrecks the ship carrying them. One ends up in the Greek city of Ephesus, the other in Syracuse, on the island of Sicily. Both, coincidentally, are named Dromio. And both, even more coincidentally, end up as servants to another set of twins – both named Antipholus – separated by the same shipwreck.
The two sets of twins know nothing about each other, and spend almost the entirety of the play just missing each other as they reel around Ephesus. That means that although both sisters are in the play, they’re in the action together for only a few minutes at the conclusion.
"The two Dromios have had very different lives, which have molded their personalities,” Guy said. "I have to admit, though, that I find my timbre and inflection often ending up sounding very much like hers in places.”
That might be because Guy, who took an extended leave from theater to act as mother to three children with husband Justin, teach, and concentrate on music as her avocation, leaned on McAuley for pointers after being goaded back into theater by her sister.
They acted together in school and church productions in their younger days, but had too many miles between them to work together until McAuley, who had been working in Bend, Ore., moved to Kitsap to be closer to her sister. She has since married (to Terry, who’s also in "The Comedy of Errors" cast) and gone to work teaching theater, choir and orchestra at Klahowya Secondary School.
Following Guy’s return to theater – she was in “Pirates of Penzance at Western Washington Center for the Arts, and was cast as Mrs. Corry in Bremerton Community Theatre’s COVID-quashed production of “Mary Poppins” – the two worked together in a fund-raising production called “All Together Now” at the Admiral Theatre in Bremerton, both singing and playing in the backing band.
“I admit I have pulled Kristin into shows with me a few times, including ‘Comedy of Errors,’” McAuley said. “Now that she’s begun doing theater again I often give her tips for accents, stage business, vocal placement, etc. But we have worked more independently for these Dromio roles, because she needs my advice less now that she’s gaining experience and confidence.”
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Who: Bainbridge Performing Arts.
What: The Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare.
Where: The Bloedel Reserve, 7571 Dolphin Dr. NE, Bainbridge Island.
When: June 16th to July 3rd; 7 p.m. Thursday through Sunday; pay-what-you-can preview June 16th.
Tickets: $30 general admission, $25 senior/military/child. Get your tickets here.
Information: (206) 842-8569, bainbridgeperformingarts.org.
About the Author
Michael C. Moore is a career journalist, with more than 43 years experience working at daily newspapers around the Puget Sound area – including more than 14 years covering the Kitsap County arts and entertainment scene for the Kitsap Sun. Most recently, he’s been a COVID-19 liaison and public health educator for the Kitsap Public Health District.
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