Two Tickets to MET's production of Edward Albee's Seascape

Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre brings Albee, sea creatures and all, to KC

Karen and Bob Paisley, founders of the Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre, looked at the sloping set –– a patchwork of plywood, foam and chicken wire –– and knew that soon it would be covered with sand.

Lots of it. One or two tons of sand, Bob Paisley said.

The occasion is the MET’s production of “Seascape,” Edward Albee’s impossible-to-categorize play from 1975 that has never received a professional production in Kansas City.

The work earned Albee the second of his three Pulitzer Prizes and reflects the iconoclastic dramatist at his most audacious. Part domestic drama, part satire and part fable, the piece depicts the profound change experienced by a couple picnicking on the beach when they encounter two reptilian creatures from the sea.

Karen Paisley is directing. She also designed the set. And she designed two of the four costumes. The MET, always limited by budget, makes a virtue of maximizing resources.

Paisley said she had wanted to direct “Seascape” since seeing the first act performed at the Great Plains Theatre Conference in Omaha in 2007.

“It seemed like a natural fit” for the MET, she said. “I love it. I love his writing, the intelligence, how cool it is, the way he talks in the play. I love his writing for women.”

Paul Orwick and Marilyn Lynch play the human couple. Sam Wright and Katie Ligon are the sea creatures.

One of the fundamental questions in any production of “Seascape” is how to play the creatures. How realistic should they be?

“We have to give them permission to be fantastic,” Paisley said. “We looked at a lot of different animals and made choices that reflect different parts of the animals we studied.”

Company member Jan Chapman designed and built the creature costumes, a task she executed while also rehearsing “I’ll Be Back Before Midnight” at the American Heartland Theatre.

“The way they’re described is ‘great green creatures,’ ” Chapman said. “For the most part, you’ve got a pretty broad license to do what you want.”

Chapman said she used unitards as a foundation, and then attached oversized webbed feet and hands. And she had to apply the tails in a way that wouldn’t damage the rest of the costume.

“The tails are quite long and have a length of chain to give them weight and snap,” she said. “So I had to figure how to create a harness that crisscrosses across their chests to hold the tails up.”

Chapman sewed, glued and painted the costumes, effectively converting her house into a costume shop.

“So,” she said a few days before curtain, “I have sea monsters hanging in my kitchen from the chandelier.”