Manchester Junior Senior High School Theatre Presents 'Noises Off'
Posted
Staff Report-
NORTH MANCHESTER – Manchester Junior-Senior High School will present “Noises Off” at 7 p.m. Saturday and at 2 and 7 p.m. Sunday at the high school’s performing arts center. The play, a production of Michael Frayn’s 1983 madcap British farce, shows the workings of theatre from the front and the back of the set. The New York Times has called the show “spectacularly funny,” and the New York Post said, “Michael Frayn’s ‘Noises Off’ is the funniest farce ever written.” “Noises Off” is a play-within-a-play in which a bumbling cast of actors put on a plotless British farce called “Nothing On.” The first act shows the cast rehearsing the play with only 12 hours until opening night. The second act shows the complete pandemonium backstage during the run one month later due to illicit affairs, temperamental actors, flying fire axes and well-placed cacti. By the time the third act rolls around, the cast has been performing this play for quite some time and the goal is to get through this last performance in one piece. The cast for the show includes senior Alyssa Fairchild as Dotty Otley; senior Clayton Marcum as Garry Lejeune; freshman Cylas Howard as Selsdon Mowbray; junior Colin Garcia as Fredrick Fellows; sophomore Ayla Rose as Belinda Blaire; sophomore Lauren Myers as Brooke Ashton; eighth-grader Ben Reichenbach as Lloyd Dallas; junior Kendra McKinley as Poppy Norton-Taylor; and freshman Heath Dierks as Tim Allgood. The set for “Noises Off” is a depiction of a two-story English country home. The house turns 180 degrees to reveal the back of the stage in Act Two and returns to the plays set for Act Three. Audiences rarely if ever get to see what happens back stage at a production. Michael Frayn’s “Noises Off” has offered a glimpse into the workings of real theatre from the front and the back. The set is the 10th member of the cast. It was entirely constructed by community members Denny Unger and Steve Johnson. The production staff includes Student Production Assistant Katelyn Stuart, senior; Technical Director Kelsy Presl; lights, Adam Hanback, senior; sound, Devin Good, junior; rails, Simon Diefenbaugh, senior; Assistant Director Kathy Hawkins; and Director Marilyn Sexton-Mason. Tickets can be purchased at the door and are $8 for adults; $5 for senior citizens and students in kindergarten to college, with ID; and children 4 and younger are free.
