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General News: Play On! A CCHS Drama Club Production
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| Brandon Santulli as Lou, the stage manager, and Lea Pandoliano as Smitty, the maid. |
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| Craig Franke (r) plays Saul, the villian, and Ryan Wenke plays Aggie. |
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| David Ransbottom plays Lord Dudley and Sage Kirwan plays Lady Margaret. |
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| Jessica Hauserman, as Phyllis, passes out new dialogue script the day before the play opens. |
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| Ryan Cobb as the harried director of the murder mystery. |
November 10, 2010
As Shakespeare said, ‘the play’s the thing’ and it is doubly true this weekend at Cornwall Central High School where the drama club will perform “Play On!,” a comedy about the obstacles that actors and directors face when staging a play.
In this play within a play, a community theater group is producing a murder mystery written by an amateur playwright who keeps changing the script right up until opening night. The actors cannot get through a rehearsal without hearing from Phyllis, the playwright, about how she has changed a character’s personality or written what she calls “the most lovely lines.”
As they rehearse, the director sits at the foot of the stage in his chair, jumping up repeatedly to coach the actors and to fend off the pushy playwright. On stage, the actors assume pretentious British accents befitting the ladies and gentlemen whom are caught up in a murder mystery.
In between acts, the characters drop their accents and complain about the production process or, in one case, steal kisses when no else is around to see their own personal drama play out.
Even as the actors struggle to practice their lines in rehearsal, the stage manager, Lou, angrily chain smokes cigarettes while struggling to get the set ready in time for opening night. When the curtain finally goes up, everything that could go wrong, does, in scenes that are guaranteed to make you laugh at the sheer illogic of it all.
Rich Aufiero, who has directed productions with the drama club for 12 years, says that he selected “Play On!” because he loves fun farces and because of the ensemble nature of the cast. “It is always a challenge finding a script that has 10 parts where the dialogue is spread around,” Aufiero said following a recent rehearsal. “This allows all of the actors an opportunity to get their respective moment(s) in the bright stage lights.”
Aufiero has two separate casts for the production. One group of actors will perform on Friday and Saturday nights at 7 pm. The other group will perform the roles on at the Saturday afternoon show at 2 pm.
The cast, in order of appearance, features:
Aggie………………....…………...…...……Ryan Wenke, Sam Oliva*
Gerry...............................................................Shona Ford, Ryan Cobb*
Smitty………….……………………Lea Pandoliano, Hannah Fabiny*
Billy...………......……………………Bobby Flitsch, Dante Giannetta*
Polly..……..………………..……….....Alyssa Marino, Marlee Lisker*
Henry......…..................................... David Ransbottom Robert Reuhl*
Violet..……..…………….........…..…….. Sage Kirwan, Lora Rinaldi*
Saul............................................................ Matt Begbie, Craig Franke*
Lou/Louise...……………….………Brandon Santulli, Pam Williams*
Phyllis..………………..…...….……..Jessica Hauserman, Liz Chiero*
*These actors will perform Saturday afternoon.
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