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Entertainment

Play within a play

Two actors show up at the last minute and are cast as leads. Then they learn that they hail from the same area.

By STEVE BAAL
Published July 29, 2005

CLEARWATER - The City Players' performance of Guys and Dolls, which opens tonight at Ruth Eckerd Hall for a three-show run this weekend, features all the venerable musical's quirky characters and toe-tapping tunes, like Luck Be a Lady, Adelaide's Lament and Sit Down You're Rocking the Boat.

But this cast offers an interesting background story that rivals the plot of Damon Runyon's original book.

Just to recap: The saga revolves around the efforts of one Nathan Detroit to set up the latest installment of "The Oldest Established Permanent Floating Crap Game in New York." But Nathan needs $1,000 to secure a secret location for the festivities, which, he mournfully admits, he "doesn't got."

Then Sky Masterson blows into town, and Nathan sees a chance to solve his financial crisis by daring the big-time gambler to take on a seemingly unwinnable wager. Sky must somehow lure the pure-hearted Sister Sarah, who has also just arrived in the big city to bring salvation to the sinners, to agree to a date with him in Havana.

Now, the City Players have been a Clearwater theater institution since 1972, casting local talent to produce at least one major production a year. But on the last day of casting calls, actors to play the starring parts of Sky and Sarah had yet to be selected.

Enter Trey Ryan and Susan Bell. Both had only recently moved to the area - Ryan, 33, from Jacksonville, and Bell, 39, from California. They both had extensive theater experience.

But they each learned about the Guys and Dolls casting call late in the game; Bell only the day before the last casting. Unknown to each other, they rushed to the theater - and won the plum roles of Sky and Sarah.

"I was shocked," said Bell of Clearwater. "I was just hoping to get into the chorus."

Ryan, though he'd played lead roles before, was equally stunned. "It's very unusual to come into an area where nobody knows you or your work ethic and earn a lead so quickly," he said from his Belleair Beach home.

"They just clicked," said City Players director BJ Pucci, explaining why the choice of Ryan and Bell wasn't just a roll of the dice. "They were a terrific find for us."

There were more twists. Ryan and Bell discovered during rehearsals they'd both grown up in the same area of Maryland. And then, "We were just talking and Susan mentioned where she'd gone to high school," recalled Ryan. "I said, "No way - that was my high school's big rival!"'

Now the two wandering talents have been united by fate in Guys and Dolls. Supported by a full orchestra and a veteran local cast of 60, including Curt Gawlick as Nathan, Liz Bosley as Adelaide and Edvard Crater as Nicely Nicely, Ryan is sure the performance will be a success.

"Luck will be a lady," he said, laughing.

City Players' performance of Guys and Dolls will be tonight and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. at Ruth Eckerd Hall, 1111 McMullen Booth Road, Clearwater. Tickets cost $20 and are available in advance at the box office at 791-7400. For group ticket discounts, call Alma at 784-7386. Parking is free at Ruth Eckerd Hall lots.

[Last modified July 29, 2005, 00:51:17]