Sidebar to the 'Enoch City Arts' article!

Article released September 2022.

BREMERTON – Marcella Fischer has acted in bigger places than the tiny performance space at Enoch City Arts.

But when the Central Kitsap High School senior had a chance to make her directorial debut helming Enoch’s production of “Robin Hood,” she was more than happy to go small.

“It’s cool to have the audience react from so close,” said Fischer, a veteran of Enoch’s recent staging of “Pride and Prejudice.” “Everything is so much tighter. It’s a fun challenge.”

“Robin Hood,” the latest entry in Enoch’s ambitious schedule of performances and classes, opens September 1st and runs through October 1st.

Fischer was involved in theater “mainly as a hobby” as an eighth-grader, when she played Margot, the older sister of the titular character in Bremerton Community Theatre’s 2019 production of “The Diary of Anne Frank.” She said it was at BCT that theater started to become more than a hobby, and acting began to get some competition from directing in her ambitions.

She watched, and worked with, Rana Tan, BCT’s prolific director-actor-designer, and started leaning into the idea of directing.

“I admire her a lot,” Fischer said of Tan. “Watching her do all that she does, I started thinking that this (directing) was a real thing, and I could do this.”

Then came COVID-19, and a couple of years’ idleness for Fischer and the rest of the Kitsap theater community.

When her opportunity to direct came, it was the result of a trade-off with Enoch founder Ann Bonner.

“She asked me to be in ‘Pride and Prejudice,’” Fischer said of Bonner. “While we were doing that, she asked me if I’d like to direct the next show. So, it all kind of fell into place.”

It’s been an education, for sure – Community Theatre 101 – dealing with a large cast (16) in a small room with limited entrances/exits and other pitfalls. The first dress rehearsal proceeded without dressing rooms, which had to be ceded to a meeting of Enoch’s Dungeons and Dragons club.

“It’s a huge learning experience,” Fischer said. “But that’s what I wanted.”

More information on classes and other activities at Enoch City Arts studio, and ticket information for “Robin Hood,” are at enochcityarts.org. Follow them on Instagram and Facebook! Enoch City Arts studio is located at 714 Lebo Boulevard, Bremerton. Read our August 15th article on Enoch City Arts that describes their interconnection with other theatre groups and the community!