Ryan Carty and Alex Foufos rehearse “City and the Sea,” a musical which will make its debut in Salem July 29. Elliott Alongi photo

SALEM — Astoria is the subject of a new musical.

“The City and the Sea” was written by Paul Lewis, a playwright from Seattle. 

And Thomas Nabhan, executive director of Theatre 33 in Salem, is excited. He described it as a “new, full musical, beautiful score and lyrics, and wonderful script.”

It will be performed with live music at a Regional New Play Festival at a theater on the campus of Willamette University. It is one of seven shows making their debut at the event, which runs July 26 through Aug. 10. Performances of the Astoria show are 7 p.m. July 29, Aug. 7 and 9 with a 2 p.m. matinee Aug. 3.

Summary

Nabhan offered the following summary of the work:

“The play spans 35 years in Astoria. In 1947, a young father, Clay, gets roped into smuggling pearls from Mexico with his best friend, Frank, and to avoid getting caught they cross the Columbia Bar at night in bad weather and Clay goes overboard and drowns.

“His friend lies about what happened to Clay to his wife and young daughter, telling them Clay deserted them in Mexico. This devastates his daughter, Daphne, setting her life on a trajectory of mistrust. 

“Frank winds up marrying Clay’s wife. Daphne becomes a young, accomplished woman and in 1973 comes back to Astoria for some business. 

“Back to 1947, the play has a magical component: After going overboard, Clay is plucked out of the sea by Siri, a spirit who gathers lost souls at sea. Clay refuses to ‘follow the rules’ about transitioning permanently to the afterlife and convinces Siri to let him go ashore in Astoria to try to find wife and daughter to tell them what happened and say goodbye.

“Siri allows it — for 24 hours — and Clay is back in Astoria in 1973 at the same time his daughter returns and Frank is still there.”

In the finale, Nabhan said, “all loose ends then come together.”

Inspired

Lewis, the writer, said visits to Astoria inspired him. “It’s a wonder to me that operas have not been set there,” he said.

“I’ve never lived in Astoria, but have visited and passed through the area a number of times. I’ve always been struck by its beautiful, iconic setting on the Columbia Bar and the Pacific, and aware of its unique place in the history and boating and fishing industry of the Pacific Northwest.”

The Liberty Theatre is mentioned several times.

“The characters are fictional, but the locales are real: the waterfront district, the Columbia Bar, Buoy 10,” Lewis added. “My hope for the musical was a story that would feel authentic and specific to this place, yet at the same time universal, as any good story should be.”

Development

Theatre 33 is a professional play development company that stages a festival of new plays, which are still considered a work in progress. It points to a “robust” play development process that involves more than 80 hours rehearsal with playwrights in residence plus audience talk-backs providing reactions to the work. Writers witness rehearsals, in person or through video links, and attend all performances to guage audience reactions.

The 2025 festival is the 12th. It employs a rotating repertory format staging nine performances of seven new plays. Some are staged readings but three are full productions. This year’s line-up was selected from more than 40 scripts submitted from dramatists in British Columbia, Canada, San Francisco, Boise and Denver.

The organization has received funding from the National Endowment of the Arts in 2021 and 2024. Of its 51 new plays produced at the festivals, 19 have premiered in 16 cities nationwide.  “The first and foremost goal is to fill a need in the region to get regional stories from the Northwest into American theaters,” Nabhan said.

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“The City and the Sea” by Paul Lewis

Theatre 33 summer festival at Willamette University

M. Lee Penton Theatre, 900 State St., Salem

7 p.m. July 29, Aug. 7 and 9; 2 p.m. Aug. 3.

www.theatre33.org