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<p>SCRANTON &#8212; &#8220;Bravely bold Sir Robin rode forth from Camelot,&#8221; the troubadours sing, plucking their delicate instruments in a memorable scene from &#8220;Monty Python&#8217;s Spamalot.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;Oh brave Sir Robin, he was not at all afraid,&#8221; they continue. But soon their extravagant praise turns into list of dreadful possibilities.</p><p>From broken elbows and split kneecaps to &#8220;his heart cut out&#8221; and &#8220;his bottom burnt off,&#8221; the litany would make the stoutest heart quiver &#8212; and it falls to actor Kasidy Devlin to show just how disturbing Sir Robin finds all this.</p><p>&#8220;Robin always tries to play it cool, but sometimes that cool self he creates cracks a little bit,&#8221; Devlin said with a laugh. &#8220;I don&#8217;t say anything. I just have to react to the horrific things being said.&#8221;</p><p>Devlin, a Towanda native, is looking forward to returning to Scranton when the Broadway Theatre League brings &#8220;Spamalot&#8221; to the Scranton Cultural Center Jan. 25-27.</p><p>He remembers Scranton fondly because, &#8220;all through high school,&#8221; he made the 3-hour round trip &#8220;five days a week, driving down after school&#8221; to train with professional actors at The Northeast Theatre.</p><p>&#8220;I remember being in &#8216;Kringle&#8217;s Window,&#8217; a play by Mark Medoff, who won a Tony Award for &#8216;Children of A Lesser God.&#8217; I think I played a &#8216;bad teen-ager&#8217; who didn&#8217;t believe in Santa Claus. We did A.R. Gurney&#8217;s &#8216;The Dining Room&#8217; and I worked on the technical side of quite a few shows.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;I was a 14 or 15-year-old kid, working with professional actors from New York,&#8221; he said, &#8220;seeing what they brought to a rehearsal, seeing how prepared they were.&#8221;</p><p>Devlin is grateful he had a chance to work with David Zarko some 10 to 13 years ago at The Northeast Theatre (TNT), and to his Towanda Area drama teacher, Julie Larnard-Newbury and her husband, Joe, who drove him to Scranton day after day for a TNT theater workshop they also attended.</p><p>&#8220;I owe most of what I am today, to her,&#8221; he said.</p><p>&#8220;We really wanted to get him there,&#8221; said Larnard-Newbury, who was surprised when a reporter called her, too, on Thursday. &#8220;We&#8217;d get home late, but he always made it to school the next day.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;I would do my homework in the car,&#8221; Devlin remembered.</p><p>Larnard-Newbury, who retired from classroom teaching but still directs Towanda Area plays, remembers how Devlin auditioned for a 5th-6th grade Halloween production and &#8220;came back the next day with a little costume he had designed.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;Even as a student he always read a lot of plays,&#8221; she said. &#8220;You could tell that this was the life for him.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;He&#8217;s a consummate performer, the one you want to watch onstage. He always brings something unique to a character,&#8221; she said. &#8220;We bought our tickets (to &#8220;Spamalot&#8221;) the day they went on sale.&#8221;</p><p>For his major role in &#8220;Spamalot,&#8221; Devlin said, he plays Sir Robin as if he&#8217;s the only sane character. &#8220;The show is so crazy with flying cows and killer rabbits, I think Robin is the only one who appropriately reacts with terror. I think he&#8217;s the only one grounded in reality.&#8221;</p><p>Perhaps less grounded are King Arthur, who sings about being &#8220;all alone&#8221; though he&#8217;s accompanied by his faithful sidekick; said sidekick who knocks coconut shells together to sound like a horse, and the knights who come up with a plan to infiltrate a castle with a Trojan Rabbit &#8212; which doesn&#8217;t work out as well as the Trojan Horse did at Troy.</p><p>While he doesn&#8217;t have any swordfights in &#8220;Spamalot&#8221; Devlin, who trained at the Dell Arte&#8217; International School of Physical Theatre in northern California, is the show&#8217;s fight captain and choreographed the bloody battle between King Arthur and the Black Knight.</p><p>That&#8217;s a scene fans will no doubt remember from the film &#8220;Monty Python and the Holy Grail,&#8221; but you don&#8217;t have to be a fan of Python movies to enjoy &#8220;Spamalot,&#8221; Devlin said. &#8220;If you&#8217;re a fan of musical theater, it references so many different shows. It&#8217;s funny and it&#8217;s apolitical. It comes from some of the smartest people in England doing some of the silliest comedy they could think of.&#8221; </p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Towanda native Kasidy Devlin, center, portrays &#8216;brave Sir Robin,&#8217; who doesn&#8217;t feel so brave when the troubadours start singing about the various terrible fates he might meet. You can see him performing in &#8216;Spamalot&#8217; Jan. 25-27 at the Scranton Cultural Center. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/web1_spamalot.robin_.jpg</photo0><caption0>Towanda native Kasidy Devlin, center, portrays &#8216;brave Sir Robin,&#8217; who doesn&#8217;t feel so brave when the troubadours start singing about the various terrible fates he might meet. You can see him performing in &#8216;Spamalot&#8217; Jan. 25-27 at the Scranton Cultural Center. </caption0><photoCredit0>Submitted photo | Anita Dioniak &amp; Associates </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/web1_spamalot2.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">The Knights of the Round Table sing about how they &#8216;eat ham and jam and Spam a lot.&#8217; </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/web1_spamalot2.jpg</photo1><caption1>The Knights of the Round Table sing about how they &#8216;eat ham and jam and Spam a lot.&#8217; </caption1><photoCredit1>Submitted photo | Anita Dioniak &amp; Associates </photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/web1_spamalot5.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">King Arthur feels like he&#8217;s &#8216;all alone,&#8217; even though he&#8217;s accomopanied by his faithful sidekick, Patsy. Can you imagine how that makes Patsy feel? </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/web1_spamalot5.jpg</photo2><caption2>King Arthur feels like he&#8217;s &#8216;all alone,&#8217; even though he&#8217;s accomopanied by his faithful sidekick, Patsy. Can you imagine how that makes Patsy feel? </caption2><photoCredit2>Submitted photo | Anita Dioniak &amp; Associates </photoCredit2></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Towanda native appears as Python musical&#8217;s Sir Robin</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Mary Therese Biebel</p><p>mbiebel@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta><p><strong>IF YOU GO </strong></p><p><strong>What:</strong> &#8216;Monty Python&#8217;s Spamalot&#8217;</p><p><strong>Who: </strong>Broadway Theatre League</p><p><strong>When:</strong> 8 p.m. Jan. 25, 2 p.m. Jan. 26, 8 p.m. Jan. 26 and 1 p.m. Jan. 27</p><p><strong>Where: </strong>Scranton Cultural Center, 420 North Washington Ave., Scranton</p><p><strong>Tickets: </strong>570-342-7784</p></factboxMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Mary Therese Biebel at 570-991-6109 or on Twitter @BiebelMT</p></shirttailMeta></div>

King Arthur, knights bringing ‘Spamalot’ to Scranton