Theater: Stage 3 presents intimate ‘Seascape With Sharks and Dancer’

A young man plucks a young woman from the sea at the start of the roiling relationship play “Seascape With Sharks and Dancer.”

Sonora’s Stage 3 Theatre Company stages a production of the Don Nigro show starting Friday, May 1, and running through May 31. First-time Stage 3 director Hugo F. Martinez directs the intimate piece with its two-person cast.

Both leads are also Stage 3 newcomers, though they have worked in other productions regionally. Modesto actor Travis Blansit plays Ben, a young man who lives in a remote beach bungalow. Fresno actress and singer Julia Bentley plays Tracy, a lost young woman he finds in the ocean.

Martinez said the show is about human relationships, with elements of drama, dark comedy and existential questions.

“There are so many layers to this show, it’s difficult to really categorize it,” Martinez said in a statement about the play. “But if I really had to, I would say it leans more toward the dark comedy genre. Some of the conflicts between the two characters make for some good laughs. I mean, it’s a love story, after all.”

Martinez previously has directed with Community Theatre of Linden and is a founding member of the 24 Hour Theatre Challenge project. Bentley, who is also half of the indie/folk duo Double Jump, said her character’s complexities are fun to play. While Ben worries Tracy may have been suicidal, she claims she was simply dancing in the surf.

“She seemingly has a tough exterior. She’s cold, bitter and seems to want everyone around her to feel inferior at all times,” she said. “However, this is a facade. For in reality, she is a vulnerable woman who is seeking love and acceptance without consequence. For someone who wants to be loved so badly, she sure does do a good job fooling people into believing she wants otherwise.”

The play was first produced in 1974, and Broadway World called it “a fine dramatic character study” about the push-pull of relationships.

This story was originally published April 29, 2015 at 5:00 PM with the headline "Theater: Stage 3 presents intimate ‘Seascape With Sharks and Dancer’."