cast for Someone Who'll Watch Over Me at Interplayers -- and Dracula

Someone Who'll Watch Over Me, by Frank McGuinness, will open at Interplayers on Sept. 8 and run through Oct. 1.

Nike Imoru directs and Jason Laws has designed the set, with two of the three political prisoners played by newcomers to the Interplayers stage -- William Caisley as Michael and Charles Gift as Adam.

Gift was inspired in the Steve Martin/crazed dentist role in Little Shop of Horrors at Lake City Playhouse a few seasons back. William Caisley is the father of Robert, who teaches theater at UI in Moscow and runs the Idaho Rep in the summers.

The play's third part, Edward, will be performed by Michael Maher. As Count Dracula in last season's second show, Maher was trying to channel Bela Lugosi. Or something. Whatever he was doing, it was less scary-creepy than comic-bizarre. And I've heard that other theatergoers agreed with me.

But this is a different character in a different show, and Maher has a good resume. Besides, Caryn Hoaglund (who played the maid in that show) has told me that being in _Dracula_ was one of the best theatrical experiences of her life. And David Seitz (who played Van Helsing and has become a friend over the years) basically hasn't spoken to me (coincidence, I hope) since my long-winded _Dracula_ review. And I heard about _other_ theatergoers (especially on the Halloween night performance) who really _were_ creeped out by Dracula (both the show and Maher as the Count).



Anyway, does anyone else remember the very good production of _Someone_ at the Civic's Studio Theater in the spring of '94?
Ron Varela -- sadly, now gone from this world -- was very good in it. Can anyone tell us who directed that show, and who played the other two roles?

The plot is very simple. Three prisoners -- Adam, an American doctor; Michael, a British professor of literature; and Edward, an Irish journalist -- are held hostage by terrorists somewhere in the Middle East. Each is chained to a wall. They don't know when -- or if -- they'll ever be released.

McGuinness, now 52, grew up Catholic in Northern Ireland, so he has seen his share of war. _Someone_, first performed in 1992, was inspired by the Beirut of the 1980s; unfortunately, its subject still resonates a quarter-century later.