Darlington’s fine arts department and The Darlington Players will present Francis Swann’s “Out of the Frying Pan” in the Zelle Black Box Theatre, Oct. 27-29. Evening performances of this year’s fall play will take the stage Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m. A matinee performance will be offered Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m.
ABOUT THE PLAY
In Francis Swann’s classic, lighthearted, and fast-paced comedy "Out of the Frying Pan,” six starving young actors are looking to make it in show business. The year is 1945 and they secretly share a rundown New York apartment positioned right above a big-deal eccentric Broadway producer.
The actors and roommates plot is to rehearse one of the producer’s murder mysteries, finagle him upstairs to see a performance, and convince him to make them all Broadway stars. When the producer suddenly appears one night to borrow a cup of flour, the kids aren't going to let him leave until he sees them perform…and anything goes!
Unfortunately, the actors’ well-rehearsed plans end up falling gloriously to pieces as one disaster follows the next, eventually throwing them into an improvisational circus with real cops, a prominent politician, a quirky landlord and one “in the wrong place at the wrong time” unconscious debutante.
Swann sums it up well when a character quotes, “you don’t have to be crazy to be an actor, but it helps.” This production comes at you with bad accents, fake mustaches, dopey situations, silly gags and hopefully, infectious laughter.
“This is a fun, fast-paced play with comedy at the heart of it,” said Shelley Daniel, theatre director. “‘Out of the Frying Pan’ is a classic comedy reminiscent of a Lucille Ball sketch that moves a mile a minute. This show is honest and has depth, showing honest people with very high stakes in a tough situation.”
ABOUT THE CAST AND CREW
“As always, my goal is to have students at the center of the show’s production,” said Daniel. “We have truly maximized student involvement with this show through not only the acting but through costume design, stagecraft, and the house and stage crews.”
Designing costumes for a period play can be a daunting task, but the Costuming iPeriod has worked hard and put together period costumes on a small budget.
“The students have done an amazing job modifying the costumes that we already had to fit the time period of the 1940’s,” Daniel said. “They wallpapered the costume room with photos of clothing from that time period and spent just a little bit of money at Goodwill to add to the costumes that we already had, creating period costumes from contemporary clothing.”
The Zelle Black Box Theatre has undergone an update since the theatre department’s last production in the space. Visitors will enjoy a new seating arrangement to accommodate more people in the audience, new padded seats with armrests, and an updated sound system and light board.
“The leadership of our student staff of five has been incredible! We have a great combination of seasoned actors in this show and some that are new to the stage,” said Daniel. “This show is a difficult one because it requires actors with razor-sharp sense for comic timing. We have focused extremely hard this fall on 'the science of comedy,' comic timing and how to pace a punch line. It has been so much fun and I have a dream cast! Our Stagecraft class has been hard at work building an amazing set and our booth, props, stage, and house crews are doing an amazing job supporting this fun production.”
A new addition to the house crew this year is the sale of flowers for the public to buy for the cast and crew. There will also be a reception with light refreshments held during intermission.
CAST
Stella Miao (‘18) - Marge Benson
Brie Bishop (‘18) - Kate Ault
Morgan Ivester (‘19) - Dottie Coburn
Maggie Inman (‘19) - Muriel Foster
Alan Shorey (‘18) - Norman Reese
Nolan Wilson (‘18) - Tony Dennison
Nick Powell (‘20) - George Bodell
Long Nguyen (‘18) - Mr. Kenny
Gabby Jones (‘18)- Ms. Garnet
Michael Hall (‘20) - Mr. Coburn
Tejas Reddy (‘19) - Joe
Caleb Baldwin (‘20) - Mac
STUDENT STAFF
Ellen Jiang (‘19) - Assistant Director
Tammy Yan (‘19) - 2nd Assistant Director & Historian
MaTyah Jackson (‘19) - Stage Manager: Prop & Stage Crew Lead
Amelia Allen (‘19) - Stage Manager: Costume Crew Lead
Olivia Barfield (‘19) - Stage Manager: Prompter & Booth/House Crew Lead
BOOTH CREW
Olivia Harper (‘19) - Lights, Kathryn Chunn (‘19) - Sound
COSTUME CREW
Leelee Barnes (‘20), Daria Black (‘21), Kaaliyah Potts-Heard (‘20), Sophie Jin (‘20), Ellie Flynn (‘20), Amaya Thompson (‘20), Holly Raper (‘21)
PROP CREW
Will Bowman (‘20), Amy Kim (‘19), Trang Khuc (‘19) , Dan Nguyen (‘19), Pat Chimtanoo (‘18)
STAGE CREW
Abby Burris (‘20), Jamila Wood (‘18), and Amber Fields (‘20)
HOUSE CREW
Chloe Duck (‘20) - Tickets/Box Office, Grace Lester (‘19) - Tickets/Box Office, Abby Yerke (‘20) - Flowers, Sharon Sun (‘20) - Usher, Melody Zhao (‘21) - Reception Hostess, Katie Carlton (‘21) - Reception Hostess
TICKET INFORMATION
General admission tickets for “Out of the Frying Pan” are $7 each. Due to the limited seating available in the Black Box Theatre, guests are strongly advised to reserve tickets ahead of time at www.darlingtonschool.org/fallplay.
For more information about the play, contact boxoffice@darlingtonschool.org.
