Poster by: Lily Sholes

The is the poster for “The Play that Goes Wrong.” It will be performed February 14th to the 17th at seven PM and another on Saturday at one PM. Tickets are $10. They can be purchased at bsshs.seatyourself.biz or at the door.

This play has gone so horrifically wrong. The walls have fallen, the props are missing, actors are forgetting their lines, and no one has any idea of what’s going on. Is there anything that will go right?

If that’s what you’re thinking while watching South students perform the “Play that Goes Wrong,” then the cast and crew did something right.

“The Play that Goes Wrong” is a comedy that shows the cast of the Cornley Drama Society’s performing their new production, “Murder at Haversham Manor.” However, the actors struggle with the set, missing props, and other unfortunate mishaps while continuing to play their parts on stage.

“I think it’s like the funniest play ever written,” says theater teacher and director Timothy Haynes. He said he was excited when the production came to high schools around two or three years ago. “And I just knew I was going to do it and just waiting, waiting, and waiting until we kind of found the right mix of kids and budget and timing.”

This year, the play has two different casts performing, the Blue Cast and the Green Cast.

“Originally, we were planning on doing like a varsity, junior varsity kind of deal. And then after the first day of auditions, we kind of realized like, oh, it’s probably going to be just two equal casts. When we got to the board, we realized it was definitely going to be just two equal cast. So, we didn’t want to call it varsity, junior varsity anymore for that reason. We do have more freshmen in the blue cast, but they’re really good,” Haynes says.

“It’s so different than anything I’ve done before,” says senior Jenna Scranton, who plays Annie in the Green Cast. “It’s physically demanding. Not just like emotionally because as an actor, usually it’s emotionally demanding to be an actor. But this is physically demanding, too.”

Scranton says that she needs to get used to the walls falling around her.

“Because I keep getting scared that they’ll hit me. I know they won’t. But the walls are falling and I’m like, Oh my gosh,” Scranton says.

“Most other sets don’t have this many moving parts,” sophomore Kamrie Noland says, who is part of the crew. “Usually, you just set up the building and there’s the set. But this has a lot more to it.”

The crew doesn’t just have to get around making a complex set; they also have to fix problems they run into. Assistant crew chief junior Samuel Orme talks about one of the run ins they had with the set.

“When we unhook the walls and whenever they fall, there’s obstacles in the way that make the back force of the board fly backwards.” says Orme. He says that the paneling of the wall is nearly ripped off because of the force that it’s falling. “So hopefully it doesn’t break next time we do it.”

Haynes struggles with the set as a director.

“The actual script is really easy. … But then when you add in all of the of special effects of paintings falling, platform forms falling, walls falling, and, you know, the play is called the Play that Goes Wrong, and you expect it to go wrong. It goes so magnificently wrong. That takes a lot of planning, and a lot of work to make sure that it’s going wrong safely. Even though it may not look safe all the time,” says Haynes.

“[It’s challenging] because we have to build a set that falls apart without it really falling apart,” says retired teacher Jon Frentrop, the technical director of the theater department. “The hardest thing I’ve had to build so far is the collapsing platform. Boy, it was tough to build, but I’m very proud of it after it’s done. Well, I’m proud of my kids who are the labor. I just do the design and make sure they don’t hurt themselves while we build it.”

Junior Ko Paris, who plays Robert in the Blue Cast, says that there are also obstacles in acting with the set.

“[The] challenge is kind of working with everything that goes wrong,” says Paris, “because you have to know what goes wrong and make it look like it’s going wrong. But also make it look like I didn’t do it to make it go wrong, if that makes sense.”

Senior Myka Fluty, who plays Robert in the Green Cast, is on a falling platform during part of the play.

“It was really scary to start off with it,” says Fluty “It’s not like a drop. So, it wasn’t like, oh my god, I’m gonna die. But it’s so steep to the point where it’s like I’m holding on an entire desk off of a seven foot drop, it’s like, if I drop it, if I drop it, it’s going down. So, it’s a big responsibility, but it’s honestly really fun. And if I wasn’t on the platform, I’d be jealous. Because I feel cool up there.”

Despite the mayhem, the actors and crew enjoy the play.

“My favorite part about the play is all of the blocking that goes into my character,” says sophomore Kimmie Heath, who plays Jonathan in the Green Cast. Blocking is an acting term that describes where an actor is on stage and how they move, “Like, for example, I get to fall off a platform twice.”

“I love the controlled chaos of it,” says crew chief junior Lily Sholes, “and how the set falls apart. I’m very excited for the audience to laugh at that and to surprise people.”

Haynes chose this play not because of how fun it is, but because of the challenges that it brings.

“If you do the ‘Play that Goes Wrong’ high school edition, which we’re not doing, but if you were to do the high school edition, there are challenges to that. But it’s a little easier because there’s no platform falling or anything like that. So, we chose not to do the high school version, because it[the normal version] was so challenging. We just have this really like, can I say sadist? We’re a little bit sadist over here, where we’re just like, hey, it’s challenging. It’s worth doing right. And let’s do it,” says Haynes.

Haynes says that the difficulties of “The Play that Goes Wrong” is one of his favorite parts of the production.

“I don’t know of another play where, for 90 minutes of it, I’m laughing for 80,” says Haynes.

“The Play that Goes Wrong” will be performed February 14^th, 15^th, 16^th, and 17^th at seven PM each day with another performance on Saturday at one PM. There will also be a student matinee on the 16^th. Tickets are $10 and can be purchased on bsshs.seatyourself.biz or at the door.