Darlington Players jump out of the frying pan
A nonstop comedy with a Lucille Ball vibe takes the stage tonight at the Zelle Black Box Theatre, as the Darlington Players take the stage for the opening performance of “Out of the Frying Pan,” said theater director Shelley Daniel.
The student production of Francis Swann’s play opens at 7 p.m. tonight at the theater on the school’s campus, 1014 Cave Spring Road. Two more performances will follow the next two days — 7 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $7 and can be purchased online by following the link on the school’s web page, something Daniel recommends, saying that only 20 remain for Friday’s show.
The play takes place in 1945 New York City, with the edgy setting of three male and three female aspiring actors living in one apartment, which Dottie Coburn’s father, a senator, is paying for but doesn’t exactly
know he is, said Daniel. The apartment is right above a big-time Broadway producer’s, and the actors try to get him upstairs to woo him with their talent and land a gig — they spy on him through a radiator hose.
Each sticky situation the troupe gets themselves into seems to only exacerbate into something much worse, adding to the hilarity, Daniel said. It’s a unique play for Darlington’s own aspiring actors, who, through their performance, poke fun at the profession they may one day find themselves in, she continued.
There are 12 students in the play cast and a company of 40, a diverse bunch of veterans and newcomers with a global tinge — the play is greatly student-centered, Daniel said.
Daniel said one of the biggest tasks has been teaching kids the science of comedy, one of the hardest performances in theater, from double takes and building to a punch line. The theme of these starving artists trying to make it big resonates with students and teaches them the lesson that life is a great improvisation, she added.