Featuring hilarious one-liners, stellar choreography, and immaculate set design, The Play That Goes Wrong kept audiences captivated with its original charm.
This was made possible by Student Director (Parker Alholm), Stage Manager (Maggie Fischer), Student Tech Director (Teba DeMarco), and Student Business Director (Elle Flanagan). In addition, staff members Michael Fox, Jacob Kelleher (Director), and Bill Schumacher (Technical Director) oversaw the production.
At the start of the performance, Thespian Society President and Inspector Carter, Chris Bean (Andriy Zajac), captivated audiences with his short and snappy introduction. Then, we embarked on a spectacle, featuring The Murder at Haversham Manor as a backdrop for this acting troop’s show.
The play-within-a-play shows the journey of four suspects and their trusty investigator as they try to solve the murder of a beloved family member on the night of his engagement party. Everyone is unable to leave because the mansion, or rather crime scene, is snowed in.
Starting off with a bang, or rather, poisoning, Jonathan Harris, AKA Charles Haversham (Stella Garland), sets the scene in our comedic thriller as the murder victim. As characters begin laying story framework, we can see our beloved victim shift into a variety of humorous positions. From lying “dead” on the couch, shuffling across the floor, and that one incident with the powder, this corpse surely livened up the audience and had them cackling.
Our opening suspect, Rachel Grove AKA Mary Colleymoore (Abbie Herbold) remained a steady constant throughout the show. While trying and, in my humble opinion, succeeding to keep the set together and plot moving forward, she had a few standout moments with other members of the cast, such as her scene streeetttcchhhiiinnngggg towards the telephone line and an impromptu dueling montage.
She was accompanied by Denise Tyde AKA Perkins (Katie Rath), a clumsy comic. She had the entire audience (and even members of the cast) nearly choking (with either laughter or a certain flammable fluid).
On to our best (and worst) duos: Annie Twilloil AKA Stage Manager (Lindsay Siefert) & Sandra Wilkinson AKA Florence Colleymoore (Sophia Savarese), Sandra Wilkinson & Max Bennett AKA Cecil Haversham (Cole Lisook), and Trevor Watson AKA Lighting and Sound Manager (Noah McNulty) & One Direction. While Annie Twilloil may have been initially reluctant to take up the role of leading lady, once she had a grip on the spotlight, she could not let go. In the cat-fight of the century, she and Sandra Wilkinson played out a number of hilarious (scripted, of course) combat moves and even went so far as to knock each other out unconscious (which led to the imaginative scene in which Sandra was locked inside a grandfather clock).
Now, Sandra had more than one relationship members of the audience could never have seen coming: an affair with her fiancé’s brother Max. Let’s all take a moment to let that collective shock set in. This relationship may have been doomed from the start, but both parties made us so invested in both Sandra’s dramatics and Max’s dedication to playing his entire self into the character with so much energy jumping about the stage.
Lastly, but certainly the most passionately, Trevor hit home with his sporadic dry humor and nonchalant attitude. But, what really made him stand out was how in love he was with One Direction. It was always fun to see new merchandise featuring a certain *iconic* boyband. My only possible complaint was that there was only one 1D song playing at the show.
Finally, the Conley Drama Stage Crew (Owen Reese, Kristin Vogel, Parks Lamkey, Evelyn Abeln, Irie Condon, and Maggie Crum) was there at all the right cues and assisted the cast in building situationally hilarious, and awkward, setups. If Glenbard West ever wants to put together a synchronized gymnastics team, I see a lot of potential in this group.
In order to keep the chaos controlled , all crew members carefully designed the beautiful set to fall at the right moment. In particular, crew heads Jackie Houghtaling (Lights), Maggie Saldeen (Lights), Allison Penley (Sound), Spencer Watson (Sound), Owen Rees (Set), Kristin Vogel (Set), Alexa Dutcha (Paint), Addie Williams (Props), and Alex Dyanapali (Props Assistant) oversaw the marvelous construction of this masterpiece.
For any students interested in further supporting Glenbard West Theatre, the Spring Drama, Romeo & Juliet, will be showing from April 18 – 20.
Corrections made: Inclusion of adult director and name mispelling.
