The Potosi high school spring play had their closing show on Sunday, March 30. The show opened on March 27 and the group performed four shows in total. Auditions for the spring play took place back in December and the group has been working hard on the show since then. The cast has had to battle for time against snow days and sickness to insure that the show was well prepared.
The PHS theatre department put on the “The Play That Goes Wrong” by Henry Lewis, Henry Shields, and Jonathan Sayer. This is a show unlike anything the Potosi drama club has put on before. This show follows a group of actors in “The Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society” as they struggle to put on a fake show called “The Murder at Haversham Manor.” The cast becomes increasingly more flustered as more and more things go wrong with the show. Many comedic mishaps take place on stage including walls falling down, props breaking/being replaced, cast members being knocked unconscious, and more!
The seniors in the Potosi high school drama club had taken a field trip in the fall of their sophomore year to see a production of “The Play That Goes Wrong” at Mineral Area College. After seeing the production, they begged their theatre director, Mr. Dement, to put on the show. He told them at the time that it was a very challenging show to put on and if they wanted to do it they would have to prove that they could put in the work. Two years later, as seniors, Mr. Dement decided the group was ready to tackle the challenge.
Mr. Dement stated, “It was fun, it was a challenge, and at times everything was actually going wrong, but my students overcame and really stepped up to the challenge.”
This show proved difficult because the actors in the show had to take on the role of playing two characters at once. Another thing that was a challenge for the cast and crew was the difficult technical aspects of the show. It took a lot of safety training to insure that actors would be safe during some of the more dangerous stunts in the show. many set pieces and props break during the show so it was very important for the cast to place focus on those things happening safely.
When the show opened on the night of Thursday, March 27, it was an instant success. Potosi high school counselor Kristie Gray wrote on facebook after the opening performance, “MUST SEE!! This was one of my favorite productions EVER!!! Laughed for 2 hours straight.. then laughed all the way home!” Positive reviews continued to flow in as the weekend progressed.
The show closed on Sunday marking the last show for fifteen drama club seniors. What an amazing year for PHS theatre!
