Riley Pierce
eSomethin’ staff
Are you planning to go see the fall play The Foreigner? Mr. Gentry, the director of the play, explains why you should and what goes into making a play. Also students freshman Myles Claybrook and Melissa Mintz talk about making props for the play, and junior Geoffrey Mintz tells me about what it is like to be sound chair.
The fall play, The Foreigner, is a comedy about “Froggy” LeSeuer, played by freshman Bennett Bernhoft, and Charlie Baker, played by freshman Jordan Hood. “Froggy” goes to a fishing lodge that he frequently visits in rural Georgia. Froggy’s friend Charlie, who is pathologically shy, is afraid to talk to people so instead he decides to pretend to be a foreigner who can’t speak English. This leads to some very bad people revealing secrets around him because they believe he doesn’t understand English. You’ll have to go see the play to see the comedy trouble that ensues from this.
Not only will the play be comically entertaining it will also be scenically amazing according to Claybrook and Mintz.
Mintz states that it was important that, “if the thing has to be from a certain era, I have to make it look like it’s from that era” saying she had to “distress some pieces of paper by staining them with coffee and burning them a bit to make it look really old.”
Even Mr.Gentry said the hardest part was the log cabin because they, “had to make the look of wood out of styrofoam.” Putting the set together definitely wasn’t light work either, when asked what the hardest part of putting it all together was, “Carrying most of the planks out, definitely carrying the flags and the planks.”
You can’t have a good play with just a good set — casting is very important. The cast might be the most important part of the play, “as a director if I can get the right cast most of my job is already done,” says Mr. Gentry when asked about what he looks for in a cast. He also explained that when he auditions people he looks for people who fit the role and who can really portray the character correctly on stage.
When asked what he was most proud of for this play Mr. Gentry explained that he is most proud of the cast because, “It’s a very young cast, there are about three freshmen with lead roles, and for being so young and inexperienced I think they’re doing a really good job. They have come a long way, you would never known they were freshman.”
Once the play has been cast rehearsals start, for this play the cast had to rehearse for two months, Monday through Thursday from three to five. It’s a long process of different steps to memorize everything:
“During the rehearsal we start with just what’s called blocking where they move on stage and then they get their lines memorized and once they have their lines memorized we work on actually interpreting the lines the reactions in their face and body,” Mr. Gentry explains.
“The hardest part is learning the lines of other people. Some are very quick studies and the lines aren’t a problem but they might have a problem with being large enough in their reactions,” Gentry explains.
Now that the cast is ready to go, what about the crew? I spoke to Geoffrey Mintz, soundboard chair, about what his responsibilities are so the show can the show run smoothly.
“As a sound chair I have to make sure my crew knows how to run the soundboard and knows some basic sound duties like mic’ing an actor and changing batteries. Before rehearsals I make sure everything from the mics to the speakers is working and fix them if need be. During rehearsals I make sure my sound crew is running the board correctly and troubleshoot any problems that may come up like an actor’s mic going out or a headset going out.” explains Mintz.
The show couldn’t function without each and every part of the crew, and it’s not an easy job, Mintz explains. “I want people to know that this job is very hard work and you need to be able to work under extreme pressure.”
Now that you know all that went into making The Foreigner, go out and see it. It opens on November 4th at 7:30pm, and shows again on the 5th at 7:30pm, and on the 6th at 2:30pm at Perrysburg High School.
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