PORT TOWNSEND — When Renata Friedman first read the script of Laura Schellhardt’s dark comedy, “The K of D,” she heard voices in her head. The voices were those of the 16 characters in the play, set on a lake in a small town.
Friedman, who grew up in a small waterfront town, brought those characters to life on the Seattle stage last year, selling out every show, which the Seattle drama critics called “magical,” “delightfully creepy” and a “bravura performance” by Friedman.
The 29-year-old actress is now bringing the show to Port Townsend for a limited run before heading to New York, where she will perform it in the International Fringe Festival — all 16 characters.
“In some scenes, I’m holding a conversation with five people,” Renata Friedman said, “but it’s just me.”
Called “The K of D,” the two-act play was chosen from 900 entries to be part the festival, the most prestigious of its kind in this country and second only to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival on the world stage.
Dark comedy
Friedman describes the play as darkly funny, the surface humor cracking to plunge the audience into deeper waters.
In fact, Schellhardt wrote the play while staying at her father’s lake cabin in Ohio.
Looking outside one morning, she saw a little girl standing in the water at the lake’s edge, but when she looked again, the girl had disappeared, Friedman said.
The incident inspired Schellhardt to create the play around a reclusive teenager who draws the attention of the townspeople when strange events start happening.
“Rumors start, and people make assumptions that they know everything about everyone,” Friedman said.
Friedman first appeared on stage in a class play when she was in second grade. In eighth grade, she was cast as Juliet in the high school production of Shakespeare’s tragedy.
She went on to perform in other high school plays and play leads in local Shakespeare in the Park productions.
Stage experience
Graduating from Port Townsend High School in 1998, she headed for New York, where she attended NYU’s Tisch School for the Arts.
Based in New York, she has performed in New York and on national tours and commutes to perform in Seattle.
The experience on stage, plus the training she received at NYU, prepared her to play multiple roles, she said.
“When I read the play, it’s like it was written for me,” Friedman said. “The physicality, the vocal abilities, the emotional sensibilities — it’s all me.”
Who she is in “The K of D” is part of the mystery that unravels as it proceeds.
Mainly using changes in voice and vocabulary, Friedman plays the narrator, the main character, the local teenagers, their parents and their grandparents, including an old man.
“It’s very unique,” Friedman said. “Usually in a one-person show a single actor performs a series of monologues on a theme. This has dialogue that goes back and forth.”
The play could be performed by 16 actors, Friedman said, but at the end, the audience discovers why the playwright chose to have it performed as a one-person show.
The meaning of the title, “The K of D,” is also part of the mystery, although the titles of two other Schellhardt plays, “Courting Vampires” and “Shapeshifter,” may provide a hint.
Assisting at the Rose
This summer, Friedman is shifting between roles as a guest teacher at Chameleon Theater in Port Townsend and assistant manager of the Rose Theatre, a movie house owned by her father, Rocky Friedman.
She is also producing as well as acting in “The K of D,” which was produced in Seattle with financial support from Port Townsend backers.
The Port Townsend run of the play will help cover the expenses of taking the show and its five-person production team to the New York International Fringe Festival in August.
“We’re relying on ticket sales and donations to send the show to New York,” Friedman said. “The exposure is big. I’m really excited to be going there.”
Former teachers, mentors and friends from Port Townsend came to see Friedman when she made her Broadway debut in 2003 and to see her on tour and on stage in Seattle.
It’s a continuation of the positive feedback that Friedman received growing up in a small town.
“At no point did anyone hint to me that acting was a ridiculous profession to pursue,” Friedman said. “It never crossed my mind. In that way, it helped me become who I am.”
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Port Townsend/Jefferson County reporter-columnist Jennifer Jackson can be reached at jjackson@olypen.com.
