We’ve seen many plays where things go right. Wouldn’t you want to see a play that goes wrong?
The Brentwood High School Drama and Performing Arts Club performed “Play On,” a play full of chaos and mishaps, this past November. The club performed a matinee on Nov. 14, with opening and closing nights on Nov. 15 and 16 in the Sonderling Auditorium at 7:30 p.m. The cost of tickets was $5, and preferred seating was available for pre-booking online.
“Play On” was published in 1980 and written by Rick Abbott, which is one of the many pen names of playwright Jack Sharkey. The play is about a community theatre that is performing a murder mystery, published by a playwright that constantly revises the script and interferes with the production itself just days before the actual show. Act 1 starts as a normal rehearsal, act 2 is a horrible dress rehearsal, and act 3 is the day of the show, where everything that could go wrong, does go wrong.
This play is not like other plays that have been produced at the high school in the past three years. Plays such as The Outsiders and Night of the Living Dead are dramas, while Play On is a comedy.
“I think this one was more challenging than other productions we’ve done in the past,” said Mrs. Ferzola, director of the play. “The amount of lines [the student actors] had to memorize was more than any other play we’ve done up to this point. The kids had to learn the skill of comedic timing, slapstick comedy… all of those were skills that we had to introduce to the kids and they had to work hard on.”
Comedies overall can be challenging to pull off. Students attended rehearsals Monday through Thursday after school, honing their comedic abilities since September.
“For this one, I feel like you’re able to let loose with your personality more, [compared to] when you’re being serious,” said Selena Caneses, senior cast member. “You have to take into consideration that when you’re doing a comedic play, you have to make the role believable as well as get the reaction you want.”
Tech week in the world of theatre is often the most challenging of the production process, because that’s when all elements of a production come together. This includes dialogue, blocking, costumes, set, lighting, and sound effects.
“So, this time around, we were in such a good place so many weeks ago, and I kind of felt like we hit that high weeks before tech, that sometimes we feel so good about what we’re doing that we feel like, ‘oh, we got this in the bag!’” Ferzola said.
“I think I handled tech week pretty well. I had a few instances where I’m trying to note of when props come on or come off, what needs to be moved,” said Angelina Montoya, senior, secretary, and assistant director.
One of the cast members in the play, Lorenzo Sanseverino, made his debut on the stage alongside his friends, who are considered veterans of the club. He spoke about how he felt becoming a new member of the club in his last year of high school.
“It felt more and more every week that I should’ve been doing this for a long time,” Sanseverino said, “But at the same time, I didn’t have the confidence to do it beforehand. I still live with that regret.”
Interested in supporting the talented members of this program? This year’s spring musical is The Wedding Singer! based on the 1998 rom-com film that starred actors Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore, adapted into a Broadway musical in 2006. Performances will be held on Feb. 28 and Mar. 1 in the upcoming year.
