Interview: Shoreline actors in Seattle play

Ian O'Malley in a scene from Undo
Photo by Ian Johnson

By Devon Vose Rickabaugh

Thirteen year old Kellogg student Ian O’Malley started his acting career in Room 9 Alternative School in Shoreline where his sister persuaded him to take part in The Wizard of Oz as the Wizard and he decided it was “very fun”. Since then he has acted in Seattle Children’s Theater production of The Hobbit as Bilfur, and recently he played Winthrop Paroo in the Edmonds Driftwood Players’ production of the Music Man. He is in rehearsal for Kellogg Middle School’s production of Seussical the Musical as the Boy and JoJo. Now he plays The Boy in local playwright Holly Arsenault’s “Undo” at The Annex Theatre in Seattle.

Babs Lindsay as "Joan" in a scene from Undo
Photo by Ian Johnson

Barbara (Babs) Lindsay was born in Santa Monica, California and “Dad just kept us moving around my entire childhood”. Before moving to Shoreline four years ago she spent 26 years in Los Angeles where she worked in film, TV commercials and acted in plays. She discovered a natural feel for playwriting. Her first play “Free” won the New York Drama Leagues’ 1989 playwriting award and had the premier production in London. in 1991. She decided to leave acting and concentrate on playwriting. But when she got here she got an agent and started acting again. “I loved it here immediately, and still love it especially darling Shoreline. It is so “Treesy” and much quieter than in Seattle.”

The director of “Undo,” Erin Kraft, had seen Babs in Seattle in some short plays and invited her to try out for the mother Joan in “Undo”. When they needed a boy for the play Babs recommended her neighbor Ian for the role. Babs said she liked the play right away and “It’s so great to see Holly blossoming with her first play. She was able to work on revising the play while they rehearsed.”

During an interview for Jewish.com playwright Holly Arsenault described “Undo” as taking place “in a world exactly like ours except in order to get divorced, you have to endure an elaborate ritual of undoing that involves everyone who was invited to your wedding. In the world we are in all religions have this ritual. It’s not just a Jewish thing. But the family whose ritual we are seeing happens to be Jewish.”

The Artistic director Pamela Mijatov described the script as “beautiful, hilarious and haunting.”

"Undo" runs through February 16 at the Annex Theatre Company on Capitol Hill, 1100 E Pike Street, Seattle, WA 98122. Performances Thursday – Saturday at 8pm. Tickets $5-20 - all Thursdays Pay-What-You-Can. Purchase tickets online.