Nikki Visel moved to Seattle years ago to pursue her dream of a life on stage. After studying theater at Abaline Christian University in Texas, and working as an actress in Chicago for several years, Visel moved out west – to artistic, cloudy, theatrical Seattle – with a group of fellow actors and plans to open their own theater company. And although those plans fell through, Visel found a home in Queen Anne, where she has lived for seven years, and a life in Seattle theater.

“I moved out here to work with a group of people and start a theater company, which we did, and then that kind of fell apart as life circumstances changed,” she said. “When we looked at good theater cities, they were Chicago, Minneapolis, Seattle and, at the time, Denver. And Seattle was just the one that stuck, and I’m so glad that it did. I’m really at home here.”

(Left to right: Charity Parenzini, Aaron Finley and Nikki Visel. Photo by Erik Stuhaug.)

After ten years working full-time in marketing for Restaurants Unlimited and spending her evenings rehearsing and performing plays around town, Visel left last spring to dedicate herself to acting full-time. And with her long local theater ties (she’s worked with Seattle Public Theatre, the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, Theatre 9/12 and Women Seeking to name a few), she’s found a home at Greenwood’s Taproot Theatre staring in their production of “Enchanted April”, opening next week, and working as their part-time marketing director.

“Enchanted April” is based on the novel by Elizabeth von Arnim, which later inspired a play by Matthew Barber, a 1992 film and a 2003 Broadway production staring Molly Ringwald (Visel is playing Ringwald’s part!)

The play is about two British housewives just after World War I who, feeling distanced from their husbands, decide to take a holiday and rent a castle in Italy with two other women and some money they’ve squirreled away for their escape.

(Aaron Finley, Nikki Visel and Charity Parenzini. Photo by Erik Stuhaug.)

A scandalous (for the time) exploration of magical realism, the play is a humorous look into two women who escape from unhappy conditions only to find a change within themselves that ends up transforming their futures.

“That’s the first act, this sort of dark, dismal February in London. And then they go to Italy, and once they get to Italy they start to change,” Visel said. “I think the obscene beauty of the place helps shift their lives.”

“And so the second half of the story becomes a love story, in that everyone is falling in love. Perhaps with their husband, perhaps with someone they’ve met, or perhaps with being alive,” she said.

Much like Visel’s own relationship with Seattle, “Enchanted April” is all about exploring a new environment and ultimately transforming. A Midwestern girl at heart, the first year Visel moved to the Pacific Northwest, it broke a record in rainfall. But despite some doubts during that first winter season, she says that by next fall she learned the Seattle rain survival mantra: “put your hood up and keeping moving.”

And according to Visel, the play ends on a very hopeful note – “They’ve all had their ‘Enchanted April.’”

“It’s a romantic comedy with a bit of an epic message,” she said. “You can expect to be invited into the endless possibilities that we have and you can expect to fall in love.”

You can spot Visel on stage, or running lines on any given morning at some of Queen Anne’s caffeine-watering holes. Teacup, on caffeine corner, is a favorite of hers.

Taproot Theatre’s “Enchanted April” opens next Wednesday, September 23, and will be showing until Saturday, October 24. Tickets range from $20 to $33. For more information on dates, times and tickets, click here.

Photo credit: Erik Stuhaug. Thanks to Daytona Strong and Taproot Theatre for the photos!