The Tale Of A Dark And Stormy Night

The wind howled incessantly through the eves of the house – a fierce storm was brewing. It was an old house in Massachusetts on Marsh Road called The Old Wayside Inn. The wallpaper was peeling and cobwebs had taken up residence. Within could be heard the music of violins forever playing.

This atmospheric mansion was the brainchild of Moapa Valley High School Drama Teacher, Kenna Dalley. She saw the play in New York

The cast wove a web so tight that the viewer was slowly, ever so slowly, caught up in its threads. The family of the house included the slightly loopy ladies – Hepzibah and Arabella Saltmarsh (delightfully played by Jordan Hardy and Kelsey Martin); Olive (a young lady who took to “fancies” and transitioned between characters. She was convincingly played by Abbie Brill); Kevin Bessey consistently played the cranky, sinister, and slightly “mad” Ebenezer Saltmarsh, who, on stormy nights, became a bit naughty trying to find his intended Effie, who had deserted him just before that intention became reality. Completing the family was 112 years old Uncle Silas (Sterling Waite) who wheeled around a skeleton on a wheelchair – who was or was not the famous “General” who deserted at Valley Forge, went home, locked himself in and never left.

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Then there were the myriad of “outsiders” who dropped in to get out of the storm who brought their own stories with them – they included young ladies answering a newspaper ad for a nurse, college students, cabbies, policemen, a salesman and a lady in the witness protection program.

Lights flashed, thunder rolled, people screamed, characters disappeared and then reappeared, the salesman did it…not the butler…trying to kill the witness protection lady; and, proving the stage idiom that there are no small parts, Cody Adams, as Euphemio Porter, on stage but a few moments with only a few lines to deliver, delivered the pivotal and closing line: “I’m Euphemio Porter. You can call me Effie.”

These young thespians delivered some well-done evolving characters and some excellent staging. A cat and mouse (or peek-a-boo) scene behind the Hotel desk with Jordan Hardy and Kelsey Martin was an extremely well timed piece of comedy.

“The kids have been great!” said Dalley. “It will be the combination of the technical aspects and the acting that will pull the play off.” Dalley continued on how grateful she was for all the help she had received in making this strange night a reality.

A remarkable accomplishment of these high school plays is that the students are also the behind the scenes crew. They handle the lighting, sound, make-up and other management duties. I like to attend opening nights as the stage energy always seems to be higher (or more frantic) and the ensemble is still battling to make it theirs. This evening went off without a hitch and proved to be a well orchestrated and oiled theatre machine.