The Play That Goes Wrong

The CHS Drama cast members pose for a photo on opening night before getting into character Photo Credit: Emily Sanchez

The roaring laughter of the audience as the characters mess up their lines and fall on stage punctuated The Play that Goes Wrong. The fall play was a hilarious demonstration of theatre. Usually, actors would hope to only mess up during dress rehearsal so they wouldn’t be embarrassed on stage but in this show, actors purposely messed up to get the audience’s reaction. The CHS actors portray an acting troop putting on the play A Murder at Haversham Manor.

Mr. Allen, the director of the CHS Drama club, had a lot of fun with the students who participated. “What I enjoyed the most is you know getting the play started and watching them take on those roles and add their creativity to it,” explained Allen.

Sophomores Hayden Bates and Coal Fiano practice a scene from “The Play That Goes Wrong”. The scene would have the audience laughing on opening night. Photo Credit: Paige Runions

“The Play That Goes Wrong” was put on by the Cascade Drama club and tickets were by donation. There were eight cast members and eleven members behind the scenes: eight playing the parts of the stage crew and three participating as the hair and makeup crew. A lot of help goes into making a play special and fun, and the actors portrayed a behind-the-scenes look at all the drama involved with play production with talent and ease. One actor who had some extra fun lines was Breanna Loomis (12). Breanna is the only senior in drama, and she played Sandra/Florence.

“I just like the people and hanging around them, we have a lot of fun and make a lot of inside jokes,” said Breanna.

Actors also had fun off stage doing their own tradition called “Pass the Magic.” “The members will start in a circle while holding hands, Mr. Allen will squeeze the hand of the person next to them and the person whose hand was just squeezed will squeeze the next person's hand and we continue doing that until it gets back to the person who started it,” explained actor Coal Fiano (10).

The actors were not the only people who were having fun, the audience also got a good laugh from the play. A member in the audience was Maddy Black (12). “I thought it was very funny and I’m glad I got to see Breanna Loomis goof around and act ridiculous and I thought it was a disaster like it’s supposed to be, and it was really funny,” said Black.

The Play That Goes Wrong had a unique style to it that is not normally shown in regular theatre, the audience had a good laugh watching the actors have a fun time messing up their lines and dragging other actors backstage.