The Creative Arts Department hopes to spark magic and laughter this fall with two exciting productions: the Upper School play Puffs, a familiar story about a boy with a unique scar on his head that lands at a famous school of magic in the middle of nowhere, and a Middle School production of a familiar story based on Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe.
Creative Arts Department Chair Bill Jacob is directing Puffs, a comedic take on the magical world many are familiar with but from the perspective of “normal” students.
Written by Matt Cox, the play is a comedy about magical students, who aren’t worried about world-saving adventures. Still, they happen to get dragged into the epicenter of multiple magical stories. The characters hail from the “Puffs” house, while the three other houses, Braves, Snakes, and Smarts, play a supporting role as the characters experience trials and tribulations.
Jacob describes the play as a “very fast improv-show.” He also said that audiences who are familiar with a “certain famous book series will recognize characters, themes and events quite a bit.”
The play cleverly sidesteps copyright issues, according to Jacob, by avoiding direct references to specific names, places, or events associated with the popular series. He noted the importance of this, as any violations could lead to legal trouble and the revocation of performance rights.
“For those people who have no idea what we’re talking about when we talk about a magician with an interesting scar on his forehead, there’s still plenty to see,” Jacob said.
The show is targeted toward people looking for a quick laugh, with a run-time of approximately “110-ish minutes”, making for a short production with a ton of laughs, according to Jacob.
The cast is a “small but mighty group of sixteen,” Jacob said, adding that most of the actors play multiple characters, with some playing upward of 10 different characters.
Alice Shimomura ‘27, who plays J. Finch Fletchley and numerous other roles, is excited for the curtain to rise.
“I think it’s going to go well,” Shimomura said. “It’s a comedy and I think that it has a lot of potential, and I think that the cast and the people that we have are going to do really well with it.”
Puffs goes up November 14 and 15, at 7:00 p.m., and tickets are currently on sale, available on TicketStage for $5.00 as general admission.
Meanwhile, the Middle School will present The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, dramatized by Joseph Robinette.
Directed by Middle school Drama Teacher Andrea Underhill-Curtin, this production brings the classic tale of C.S Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia to life, highlighting the magical world’s struggles and the journey of the Pevensie children.
Underhill-Curtin hopes the production will remind audiences of the deeper story behind the popular book series.
“It’s a classic tale that everybody knows, but when you talk to people about it, it seems as though they forget the details of how and why the kids get to Narnia and how they manage to get out,” Underhill-Curtin Said.
The Middle School performances are scheduled for December 5 at 6 p.m. and December 6 at 5 p.m. Admission is free.
