By STEPHANIE BUNKER
Moapa Valley Progress
Upon first impression, the audience might have thought that the Moapa Valley High School Theater students were simply rehearsing for their play as the production began last week. But in actuality the actors were performing the play which is entitled “Play On! A Play within a Play.” The play was, indeed, about a group of actors rehearsing a play.
The drama was directed by MVHS Theatre teacher Anjie Lee and was performed Tuesday through Thursday night last week in the Ron Dalley Theater.
Lee explained that the kids were the ones to research different plays and select the one they would perform.
“I liked the play they chose because they all had to work together and there wasn’t just one star of the show,” Lee said. “Learning and performing a play teaches the kids discipline and cooperation to work with others as well as commitment.”
Student and actor Keely Watkins said that it was difficult for the students to learn their lines because a lot of the lines were similar. They would have to say them one way and at another time must say the same line with a slight twist or change.
“We have never really done a play like this before,” said student Rachle Lee. “There are serious times and then it gets really funny.”
The first act began with a group of actors feebly trying to rehearse the lines of the play titled “Murder Most Foul.” The Director who was played by Carlie Evans sat in the front row of the auditorium and irately shouted at the cast for not saying their lines right or for bickering with one another.
The group rehearsed unsuccessfully throughout Act 1 under the stress of having the opening night’s performance in only 3 days. To make matters worse the playwright Phyllis Montague, played by Rachle Lee, interrupted rehearsal to bring the cast a revision of her play.
She claimed to have made only minor revisions. The extravagant playwright claimed to simply add a new character and create a new love scene, changing the plot of the play! After the rejection of the new scripts by the director, the rehearsal continued on, ending the first act of the “real play.”
In Act 2 came the dress rehearsal for “Murder Most Foul.” In this act another scene of the play was shown, and again the cast could not pull their act together and get the lines right. The dreaded playwright showed up at rehearsal once again wanting to change the name of the play, which did not sit well with the cast or director.
Everything a Theater group could imagine going wrong the day before the performance happens, including the sound tape getting completely erased. After the second act Cheyenne Harris came on stage and sweetly sang “Let Me Call You Sweetheart.”
Act 1 and Act 2 set up several humorous lines to come in Act 3. Act 3 showed the performance of “Murder Most Foul.” The scenes the audience witnessed in the previous acts were once again played out, yet this time all of the lines they had rehearsed and were supposed to get right went very wrong. But since it was the performance they muddled through the lines with humorous banter giving the audience a good laugh.
