After years of producing “drama-dies” for Lynn Canal Community Players, director Tod Sebens decided it was time for a full-on comedy.

Plus, Sebens figured he had the talent.

Three veterans of the local stage – Madeline Witek, Tara Bicknell and Margaret Sebens – will join newcomer Tony Habra in presenting Neil Simon’s “Last of the Red-Hot Lovers” at the Chilkat Center auditorium March 31-April 2. Shows start 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and at 1 p.m. Sunday.

Witek (as Elaine), Bicknell (Bobbi Michele) and Sebens (Jeanette) play women pursued by Habra (as Barney Cashman), a middle-aged restaurateur hoping to cash in on the sexual revolution with an extramarital romp in New Your City circa 1969.

Sebens, who directed Witek in last year’s production of “House of Bernarda Alba,” said he was looking for a role for her when he came across the no-nonsense, fast-living Elaine Navazio, the first of three women Cashman seeks to seduce. “My sarcastic eye rolls and pained expressions in last year’s play inspired (Tod),” Witek quipped this week.

Witek performed in community theater musicals as a youngster, and also in high school plays. She said she can relate to her character’s blunt style. “I enjoy it. It’s in my range, so I can have a lot of fun with it. The more I dig into her and interact with Tony, the more I understand her actions,” she said this week.

As Bobbi Michelle, Bicknell plays a nightclub singer and actress “jam-packed with issues.”

“She falls apart all through the scene and, by the end of the scene, melts down, but it’s funny,” Bicknell said this week.

Despite the play’s setting in the anything-goes 1960s, its themes and characters will resonate, Bicknell said. “I feel like people will identify with these characters, like they’ve met these three different basket-cases before… Tony bumbles through all these encounters but he hits it at the end. It’s fun to watch him.”

Bicknell trained in ballet for 15 years and previously performed in LCCP’s “Dinner with Friends” and “Vanya, Masha, Sasha and Spike.” Part of the fun for Bicknell was finding a wardrobe, including having clothes shipped here from her mom, who was 19 in 1969. “My grandmom used to get patterns and would knit my mom these outfits. It was fun to talk to her about the clothes,” she said.

Bicknell also gave props to Habra, who moved here less than a year ago to become school superintendent. More than a week from opening night, Habra is working without a script in rehearsal and doing well in the role, she said. “He had a lot of lines to learn.”

Habra said he acted in school plays through high school. His most recent role was as Captain Hook in a school production of “Peter Pan” about 20 years ago. Margaret Sebens is a 30-year veteran of the local stage. She has held major roles in dramas, comedies, melodramas and musicals.

Director Sebens said the play involves a fairly complicated set. It includes several entrances to a meticulously kept apartment rented by Cashman’s mother that doubles as a love nest when she’s away. Set designers Lorrie Dudzik and Trudi Miller were charged with locating period furniture. “I’m not sure I can get the apartment to look that way,” Sebens said.

The play includes four or five profanities and a marijuana-smoking scene, Sebens said.

Neil Simon’s plays include “The Odd Couple,” “Brighton Beach Memoirs,” “The Out-of-Towners” and “Sweet Charity.”