We are delighted to announce the cast for the final production in our 85th Season – The Niceties. Laurie O’Brien plays Janine Bosko and Danielle Shope plays Zoe Reed in this urgent debate about race, history and power.
Laurie O’Brien was most recently seen on the LPH stage as Gingy in Love, Loss & What I Wore last spring. She has also appeared at the Olympia Family Theater as the letter Z in the original musical The Alphabetastics, and has both acted in and written for OFT’s Tales Told In Ten playwriting festival. Laurie is a member of two Playback Theatre companies, Brave Practice and The HeartSparkle Players, where she gets to turn audience members’ stories into art. She is humbled by the opportunity to give life to such a brilliantly written character as Janine, and knows that participation in The Niceties is another step in her own journey of becoming anti-racist.
Danielle Shope is getting back into theater after a two-year break; her last show being SpongeBob: The Musical at Rainey McCullers school of the arts in Columbus, GA. Missing theater since 2022 she decided to audition for her first show at Lakewood Playhouse and was more than happy to have been cast as Marie in Incorruptible. She’s always loved all aspects of theater. She’s been stage manager in shows like Hush: An Interview With America, Six: Teen Edition, Laundry And Bourbon, and more. Light board operator in shows like Poet And The Rent, and An Actor’s Nightmare. Stage crew in Lockdown. Part of cast in the shows Men On Boats, Sister Act: The Musical, I Never Saw Another Butterfly, and more. She’s even had the privilege to write, cast and student direct her own show during senior year. Danielle would like to thank her family for encouraging her to pursue her dreams from a very young age, her husband for supporting her and helping her practice her lines and everyone she’s been able to work with at the Lakewood Playhouse.
Directed by Michelle Matlock, The Niceties runs for ten performances only from May 31st-June 16th. There is a Pay What You Can performance on June 6th.
Call the Box Office at (253) 588-0042 or click here to book your tickets.
