Freed
steps up with one-woman show
By BRETT OPPEGAARD
THE COLUMBIAN
PORTLAND –
After a couple of successful trial runs,
Joan Freed plans to make her one-woman
musical comedy “Chocolate Confessions” a
downtown Portland mainstay – at least for
the next couple of months.
Freed
already has performed the show this year in
Lake Oswego and at the landmark Old Church
with great success, either to sellouts or
near capacity audiences. The February
performances in Lake Oswego drew 115 people
per night for three nights. In April, she
attracted 200 a night for four performances
in downtown Portland’s Old Church.
“The art
museum for (at least 10 weekends) is a big
step up,” Freed said. “But we want to see
where this can go.”
Freed
said she has the option to extend the run at
the museum through February, with
cabaret-style seating – four chairs per
table, 50 tables. Desserts (mainly
chocolate) and drinks are available.
The
piece is set in a chocolate shop, where
owner Coco Bliss interacts with a range of
offbeat characters. Each amusing patron
comes with a song, mainly lesser-known tunes
primarily from musicals. But there are some
familiar ones, too, including “Good Morning”
from “Singin’ in the Rain,” “Just in Time”
from “Bells Are Ringing” and “It Had to Be
You” from “Is Everybody Happy?”
Freed
considers herself a late bloomer as a
performer, not getting heavily involved in
theater until the early 1990s, when her
children did it in school and at the
Lakewood Center for the Arts. Trained as a
mathematician, including a master’s degree
from UCLA, Freed worked as an actuary for 20
years before giving up the corporate
consulting work to spend more time with her
children and on stage.
She made
her debut in the ensemble of “Kiss Me Kate”
at Lakewood in 1993 and since has had
increasingly more challenging parts with
such groups as Oregon Children’s Theatre,
The Broadway Rose Theatre Company and Clark
College Theatre.
“I
eventually was getting character roles,” she
said, “but to do what I wanted to do, I knew
I needed to create my own material.”
She
started with another one-woman piece, called
“Crossword Puzzle,” that she took around to
various spots in Portland in 1999. Her love
for eating chocolate inspired her to create
this new play, which she describes as a
departure from the previous one and “a funny
show.”
She
said, “At times, I’ve asked myself, ‘Is my
work meaningful enough?’ And I feel that
life is so fragile, and there is so much to
be distressed about, that if I can tell
clever stories and perform enjoyable music
and I feel like people have had a good time,
then it’s been a successful evening.”
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