Palmer High School stages a play within a play

PALMER — In a half-darkened theater Wednesday, the chaos of a dress rehearsal swirling around him, music teacher Stan Harris offered directions to his crew.

“Just fade that out,” he said to the teens in the sound booth before taking in the action onstage.

Eventually, though, another voice in the audience chimed in.

“Leave with the newspaper,” Zachary Hardy, playing the part of play director Lloyd Dallas, told his classmate on stage — senior Devynn Maclure — with the chaos of a staged dress rehearsal swirling around them.

That kind of bending of reality is what you’re in for if you catch Palmer High School’s production of “Noises Off.”

The play, written in 1982, is a play about a play. Harris says that the actors perform the same act of the fictional play three times. The first act is the above-mentioned dress rehearsal. Second act transpires backstage with the fictional play going on in the background. The third act again contains that first fictional act, but not the whole thing because by then the troupe can’t manage to finish it.

“Everything is crumpled into disaster at that point,” Harris said.

“It’s insane,” Harris said of the action of the play. “It’s very ambitious for a high school. The confusion factor is great.”

But, he said, the kids are pulling it off and seem to be enjoying it.

Maclure certainly is.

“I love this play,” she said.

She plays Dotty Otley. In the Wikipedia rundown of the play, the character is described as “a late-middle-aged actress. Forgetful.”

Otley’s part in the internal play is a cranky housewife, wandering in and out of the scenes with a plate of sardines she’s constantly misplacing. The action is frenetic, with characters constantly in and out of the multiple doors on either side of the stage.

“It’s really a lot of physical stuff,” she said, in a voice that made clear she thought that was a good thing.

Cody Hernandez-White, also a senior, plays Garry Tramplemain, part of a three-way love triangle with Dotty and another actor. Hernandez-White said this is his first try at acting.

“It’s really a great experience. The cast is fantastic,” he said before adding, in a voice that made clear he thought that was a good thing, “my character is a bumbling idiot.”

Asked what made him want to try his hand at acting, he said he’d been trying to experience new things lately. The last thing he tried was skateboarding.

“Skateboarding didn’t go so well so here I am at this play,” he said.

Senior David Banse plays Selsdon Mobrey, described in that same Wikipedia article as “an elderly alcoholic man who hides his bottles onstage.”

Banse would add to that description that, “I’m constantly caught with my trousers down. Literally.”

Like Hernandez-White, this is Banse’s first time on stage at Palmer High. He said he’d always wanted to try out for a play, but there were always conflicts with sports and other extracurricular activities.

As for his feelings on “Noises Off,” maybe it’s fortuitous that he waited so long.

“I like it a lot,” he said. “It had never occurred to me to have a play within a play.”

Contact reporter Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.

What: Palmer High School presents ‘Noises Off’

Where: Palmer High School Theater

When: Oct. 25-27, and Nov. 1-3, 7 p.m.

Cost: Adults $10, Students $7

For reservations call 746-8403