The Montezuma-Cortez High School drama club performed “Noises Off,” a “comic farce” by Michael Frayn, Nov. 7-18 at the Ralph E. Vavak Memorial auditorium.
The play was a play within a play, according to Nicholaus Sandner, drama teacher, English teacher and thespian and drama club sponsor at M-CHS.
The cast had nine actors, who performed across a two-in-one stage that rotated throughout the first through third acts of the play.
“The play was awesome, it was really fun to see the progression of the show,” Sandner said. “It was really fun to see the characters grow from opening night to closing night and how the actors got more comfortable with their positions and all of that, so I am really proud of them for all their hard work.”
The play began with a final rehearsal, then showed the actors backstage with their personal drama. It finished off with the final production of the play within a play, which has become complicated by the actors’ backstage drama.
“The third act, the set rotates back around again, and you are watching one of the final productions of the play they are performing. And it has completely fallen apart because they have let all of the drama get into the scene itself,” Sandner said. “They are missing their lines and yelling at each other, and everything has kind of fallen apart.”
The M-CHS drama club rehearsed the play since September. Sandner said he allotted some extra rehearsal time because the play is complex and the small cast of nine carried a lot of individual lines.
The cast kept the audience laughing throughout and the chaotic nature of the show made it all the more hilarious to the crowd.
The crew is about three times the size of the cast, according to Sandner.
The cast and crew closed its final performance by presenting stage managers and Sandner with gifts and gratitude.