Sisters actors perform in 'Tommy'

Sisters' Shawn and Keenan O'Hern have a serious case of pinball fever, after just finishing a successful run of The Who's classic rock-opera "Tommy," presented by the 2nd Street Theater, in Bend. The production was directed by Maralyn Thoma and Sandy Klein, and featured multi-media stage effects and a live band. The O'Herns and another local actor, high school senior Adam Cash, were part of the crazy ensemble cast of 25, telling the electrifying tale of a deaf, dumb and blind boy's rise from pain to triumph as a charismatic pinball superstar.

"The final show was a packed house," said Shawn. "This was my first musical, and for me it was educational and an inspiring, involving process. I came in pretty raw. The cast was over 20 people, and that adds a certain complexity having a dance coach and dance coordinator. We had to work a lot with The Tommy Band so they could synch up with us and the singers with them. I learned a lot about reading music and singing notes. It's a fun element to have a live band. Those guys were awesome. It makes the whole performance much more interactive."

Tommy was originally the brainchild of Pete Townshend, legendary rocker and member of British band, The Who. Townshend wrote most of the music and lyrics for the 1969 concept album, then later helped adapt it to film.

Adam Cash was also in the wild musical cast. He's been lead actor in many school productions like "South Pacific" and "Twelfth Night," and will be continuing his career as an actor after high school. This was his first chance to be in a community theater environment and work with some different people.

"I was very excited to do it," said Cash. "I want to go to college and study acting, so this was a really good experience. It showed me how hard I have to work and what it's like to get in front of a new audience every night. It was a great show to be a part of. I was in the chorus mainly, and it was fun to switch in and out of various characters. Once we were able to start selling out the show it makes a huge difference. Having a good audience every night really makes it all worth it. "

Shawn O'Hern starred in the 2nd Street Theater production of the 1930s dustbowl drama "The Rainmaker" last year, playing the lead role of Starbuck. His multitude of roles in Tommy included a minister, magistrate, an inspector, doctor and news reporter.

"You wonder if people in the audience sees the effort you put into each character you do, beyond just the costume change," he said. "Some of them are really small, so you need to make it feel real and bring it as much to life as possible. It was a really supportive cast, and we all worked hard to make the production bloom and make the songs come out clean and crisp."

His son, Keenan, is a sophomore at Sisters High and, besides a couple middle school productions, this was his first real play.

"I was a Nazi, a doctor in two scenes, a chorus member, and a lad and a thug," he said. "I liked it because I got to do dancing and singing and a variety of things which was really cool. I watched the movie but didn't like it at all, it doesn't do the play justice. We also listened to the CD to get a feel for the music, but before that had never heard any of the songs. My favorite scene was the big pinball wizard scene near the end. There's a hard, six-way harmony part that had to be cut down to two because it was so difficult."

Shawn recalls growing up with the songs from Tommy and playing pinball machines in the simpler age before the onslaught of video games.

"I remember a lot of the music from the '70s," he said. "There's a great message of forgiveness in the story and the stress put on Tommy and damage caused by his upbringing. I think that was clearly conveyed with all the vignettes and scenes. This is the first thing Keenan and I have done it together, and now he's got the acting bug. It was a great father-and-son activity."