|
Santa Fe Prep presents play about unwanted guests and romantic entanglements
Nov 14, 2010 (The Santa Fe New Mexican - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
The Man Who Came to Dinner is about a man who came to a house for dinner, but then slipped on the stairs outside the house, and ended up confined to a wheelchair, which meant he had to stay in the house a lot longer than expected.
This setup leads to romantic entanglements, a visit by ex-convicts, a penguin biting a lady, a merry-go-round of Hollywood celebrities coming and going, and Christmas arriving just in time to cheer everyone up.
Santa Fe Preparatory School presents the George S. Kaufman/Moss Hart comedy The Man Who Came to Dinner for three performances, opening at 7:30 p.m. Friday at the Driscoll Auditorium on campus. The play premiered on Broadway in October 1939; a 1942 film version followed.
The story deals with the antics caused by a prolonged stay by acerbic radio wit Sheridan Whiteside in the Stanley household. The Stanleys figured he'd come for dinner and leave, but the unexpected fall keeps Whiteside confined to quarters, where he orders everyone about like a military general planning a strategic advance.
There's a love story between a local newspaper reporter and Whiteside's secretary, and then a famous actress comes in from Broadway to seduce the reporter, and then a mummy case shows up, and the butler gets annoyed because people want pillows.
Coincidentally, like Whiteside, director Brad Fairbanks took a fall early in the rehearsal period while attempting to perform a tour jette, which, one cast member explained, is a ballet move that's like a 1970s disco number.
While hobbling around on crutches, Fairbanks recalled making his stage debut nearly 20 years ago in a Boston production of The Man Who Came to Dinner. "I remember thinking, 'What are these people thinking, doing this play? Is this funny?' "
But, he said, that production was a big hit with audiences.
Prep student Anya Markowitz, who plays the nurse, Miss Preen, suggested doing the play at Prep, Fairbanks said. Several cast members said Markowitz should have been born in the 1930s, and the actress agreed: "I was born in the wrong time period," she said. "I am obsessed with old movies."
Anyway, Fairbanks said, the ensemble originally was thinking about doing a Shakespeare show, but who wants to deal with all that archaic language and tights and big swords hanging off everyone's belts? The Man Who Came to Dinner is set in an optimistic, pre-war America, long before cell phones and computers made us forget that there was once a very powerful medium called radio that influenced everyone's lives.
The script is full of references to long-dead people: Lillian Russell, Joan Crawford, H.G. Wells, Hedy Lamarr's brassiere (that's in the script), Lana Turner's sweater (that's in the script), and a couple of people who Whiteside refers to as "Mr. and Mrs. Poop-Face." (That's also in the script.)
A character named Banjo, clearly modeled on Harpo Marx of Marx Brothers' fame, also shows up -- and he speaks!
Prep student Rob Weiner, who plays Whiteside, said the language of the play is still a challenge, and he's curious how modern-day audiences will react.
"These characters speak in a way that people don't speak anymore," Weiner said. "They placed more importance on the words they chose to use. Whitehead is the host of a radio show, and all you hear when he speaks is that radio voice."
During an interview with the 15 or so actors in the show, the various members of the ensemble spoke in overlapping dialogue as they explained what the play was about, with one suggesting it was a different take on How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
Trying to get a full copy of the script was a chore. "I have everything but the first 15 pages," one actor said. "I'm missing the first 19 pages," another noted. Turns out most of the scripts had bad bindings, so pages kept falling out of the text and to the floor.
But the cast is game, and, as costume director Anne DeMay noted, clothes make the actor. "The minute we put them in costume, they become the characters," she said. "The giggling stops, their confidence grows, and they transform. That's why I love doing this."
And so, based on watching part of a rehearsal, do the students.
IF YOU GO
What: Santa Fe Preparatory School presents The Man Who Came to Dinner
When: 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Nov. 19 and 20, and 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 21
Where: Driscoll Auditorium on campus, 1101 Camino de la Cruz Blanca.
Cost: Tickets are $5 and $7 at the door. Call 982-1829.
To see more of The Santa Fe New Mexican, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to
http://www.santafenewmexican.com/. Copyright (c) 2010, The Santa Fe New Mexican
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For more information
about the content services offered by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services
(MCT), visit www.mctinfoservices.com.
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
|
TMCnet LOGIN
Webinars
