‘Simple Salmon’ at the Ten Fifteen

Published 9:00 am Wednesday, February 9, 2022

Terri Baier dreamed of trying out for the stage. Husband John made it possible, gifting her acting lessons with Portland professional actor Shelly Lipkin. “It is something I always wanted to do,” Baier said. Her adult debut was playing the ill-fated actress, Sybil, in “The Picture of Dorian Gray” when the Coaster Theatre in Cannon Beach reopened after the covid shutdown last fall.

Now she is back — playing multiple roles in “Simple Salmon: The Respawning,” a set of comedy sketches that opens at the Ten Fifteen Theater in Astoria on Friday.

“I get to be a patient and a customer in a mechanic’s shop,” said Baier, eager not to reveal too many surprises. “I think it’s fun — it’s challenging. You have to let yourself go and not take yourself so seriously in a comedy.”

‘Crazy’

The show runs two weekends and is being billed as a “respawning.” Parts were performed at the River Theater which operated in Astoria from 1998 to 2008. Many actors who have filled roles in the Ten Fifteen’s last two productions appeared there.

The River was spearheaded by Karen Bain, Tim Hurd and Nancy Montgomery, who had the lone female role in “The Weir,” the Irish mystery play that reopened the downtown Astoria storefront theater after the COVID shutdown.

“The local sketch comedy show (and voting for your favorite each night) was spawned from Tim’s brain, initially, and we produced it five years, with all sorts of crazy, brilliant and/or goofy submissions over the years, and with variations on the name, including one solely about Lewis and Clark,” Montgomery recalled.

Parts have been repeated on Astoria stages over time, including during a sketch comedy show called “Return of the Never-Before-Seen Thing from the Sea,” the brainchild of Mick Alderman, a director and actor who also appeared in “The Weir.”

The work is the directorial debut of long-time Astoria actor Bill Ham. As well as Baier, the cast features Susi Brown, Bill Honl, Kelli Hughes-Ham, T.J. Newton, Slab Slabinski and Lori Wilson Honl.

“The show is a selection of things that were done,” said Ham, describing how the scripts were somehow preserved in the acting community. “It was an ‘incomplete archive.’ It was done by local writers or people who lived in Astoria at the time. There is one scene that is all about Astoria.”

Protocols

The theater is at the address which gives it its name, 1015 Commercial St., Astoria. Performances will be at 7:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and Feb. 18 and 19. There is one matinee at 3:30 p.m. on Sunday.

Tickets are $15 online at www.thetenfifteentheater.com or at the door. Audience members must wear masks and show proof of vaccination for admission. Seating is limited to allow social distancing. No concessions will be available.

As the theater performs this show, it is gearing up for another production in March. Bain, who directed “The Weir,” returns to direct “Art,” an unusual three-person play by Yasmina Reza highlighting how characters’ differing viewpoints on modern art test their friendships.

Ten Fifteen Theater

1015 Commercial St., Astoria.

7:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and Feb. 18 and 19 and  3:30 p.m. on Sunday.

Tickets are $15 online at www.thetenfifteentheater.com or at the door. Audience members must wear masks and show proof of vaccination for admission.