'She Loves Me' at Yorba Linda Spotlight Players

OC Theatre Guild
Jun 15
4 min read

Updated: Jul 8

Because at the end of the day, it’s all about community

This story was produced by the OC Theatre Guild as part of a community media partnership with Culture OC. It was written and edited independently by the Guild’s selected contributors. This collaboration supports our effort to celebrate and amplify the vibrant arts and culture scene in Orange County.

By Shannon Cudd

As fast-paced modern life and technology increasingly isolate human beings, it seems harder than ever to make genuine connections. Collective experiences and communal events are few and far between. Charna Lopez, the Artistic Director of Yorba Linda Spotlight Players, is on a mission to combat this by building a safe and supportive community theatre.

Fresh off the company’s OC Theatre Guild Award win, Lopez appears to be on the right track. Yorba Linda Spotlight Players grew out of a children’s theatre company. Lopez said creating this new venture allowed her to “come full circle,” since community theatre was “important to her when she was younger and helped form her theatre experience as a young person.” She and her business partner wanted to continue creating opportunities for their students as they graduated out of the youth program, and to expand their reach to the larger Orange County community. They even grew their partnership with the City of Yorba Linda by continuing to utilize the theatre at the Yorba Linda Cultural Arts Center for their productions.

Lopez chose the 1963 classic musical “She Loves Me” with a book by Joe Masteroff and music by Jerry Bock, for YLS Players’ second production. As the theatre establishes itself, she wants to focus on family-friendly entertainment. She enlisted her friend Scott Barnhardt to direct, and he happily accepted, as “She Loves Me” is one of his favorite shows. Lopez is serving as the production’s choreographer.

Barnhardt is onboard with YLS Players’ ethos. “I just love the mission of the company,” he gushed. “You know, where it’s all about community. It's community theatre with a focus on community and really making this a joyous, fun, interesting, kind space.”

He was blown away by the talent at auditions. “You hear the words ‘community theatre,’ and it sort of conjures up images of Waiting for Guffman or bad American Idol auditions-- and it was the exact opposite,” he explained. “There's so much talent. There's so much training. People know what they're doing and are passionate about it.”

He is enjoying the chance to remove the negative stigma surrounding ‘community theatre’ and to reconnect with “the purity of this experience.” He added: “It's just taking me back to my roots of why I do this and why I love this.”

Speaking of matters of the heart, “She Loves Me” tells the story of a 1930s Budapest parfumerie and its colorful employees. The plot centers on Georg Nowack and Amalia Balash’s love story. As the musical begins, the pair do not get along-- but unbeknownst to them, they are head over heels for each other as secret pen pals. (This musical and the 1998 Nora Ephron film “You’ve Got Mail” share the same source material, Parfumerie by Miklós László.)

Mr. Maraczek, the store’s owner, believes his wife is cheating on him. Ilona Ritter and Steven Kodaly have a tumultuous on-again, off-again relationship. Arpad Laszlo, the ambitious delivery boy, wants to become a clerk, while Ladislav Sipos just wants everyone to get along.

Barnhardt describes the show as “a confection. It is joyous and light, but there's some surprising depth in the piece.” This depth partly comes from the era in which the story is set- between the two World Wars, after much of the country had been annexed. Barnhardt's awareness of this history context sets this production apart.

“It's really about the endurance and the resilience of the human spirit, and the endurance and the resilience of love,” Barnhardt mused.

He also sees parallels with the present day. “What I find interesting about the human spirit is that even when we're going through tough times—when there's political unrest and financial insecurity—I don't know if that feels, you know, relevant right now?—we still walk through our daily lives with dignity, with respect, with kindness. We still seek these human things like love,” he explained.

Lopez has complete faith in Barnhardt. “He does a really great job of connecting his cast to one another and really diving into character work,” she stated. “I know that's gonna be apparent on the stage. These characters will be entertaining, intriguing, and will bring the audience in.”

Just like modern humans, all the characters in this show are struggling with loneliness. Barnhardt believes they find the antidote in vulnerability-- by allowing themselves to be who they really are, even at the risk of rejection. “The more vulnerable and truer to yourself you can be, the more your life will likely thrive,” he advised.

Beyond seeing a wonderful cast and a quintessential classic musical, both Lopez and Barnhardt urge theatregoers to continue supporting community theatre. “Theatre is really great for your soul,” Lopez stated. “It's really great to broaden your path a bit.”

“Coming and seeing the show is actually supporting your civic center,” Barnhardt added. “This is a great way to support your city.” And in the process, audiences might just walk away a little less lonely-- and with a new community of theatre-lovers to hang out with.

Shannon Cudd is a writer, actor, and theatre lover in Orange County, California.