Of fading actors flying sardines
The Newtowne Players stage comedy ‘Noises Off ’
For the most part, a stage production will improve each night as the director and the actors each finetune the show.
That is certainly not the case in The Newtowne Players’ “Noises Off,” which gives a comedic look at the follies of theater folk, out-of-control egos, memory loss, passionate affairs and flying sardines.
The play is divided into three parts — the dress rehearsal, opening night and a performance near the end of its debilitating run.
“You get to see the play the night before the curtains go up when everything is going wrong, and then a couple weeks later you’re backstage where things have gotten worse and people have misinterpreted things that were said,” said director Randy Tusing, who lives in La Plata and is art art teacher at Leonardtown High School for the past 36 years. “Then you go a couple more weeks toward the end of the tour and things have just hit rock bottom.”
The play stars Allison Dodges, Noah Busby, Sarah Pollard, Neil Compton, Rachael Howell and Michael Jones, each of whom take on dual roles.
Compton, who lives in Lusby and works at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, portrays Fredereick and the somewhat eccentric Phillip.
“It was very different because I wanted to draw a distinct difference from when I was playing Frederick and playing Philip,” said Compton,
who developed British accents for his characters, each in its own dialect.
Richard Schanck takes on the role of exasperated director Lloyd, Kenny Faison is the bumbling stage manager and Kate Larsson takes on the role of the overworked and under-appreciated Poppy.
“We had an embarrassment of riches,” said assistant director Steve Pugh, who lives in Great Mills and is a mechanical engineer. “We had a number of people come out for the show where we could have cast multiple people in each role so there was a lot of versatility and great talent.”
“I auditioned for [the role of] Lloyd,” Compton said, “but there’s not a bad role in this show, so I was happy to play any of the parts.”
Dodges, who is a stay-at-home mom who lives in California and plays Dotty and Mrs. Clackett, said she hasn’t “done a ton of shows but we are all tight. This cast is my favorite.”
The play was produced by Robin Finnacom, the stage managers are Kate Donnelly and Shelby Tyler and set design is by Chris Maulden.
Though he directed the play several years’ back for Port Tobacco Players as well as at Leonardtown High School, Tusing said it was important he put a new spin on the play.
“You want to find something different because if you don’t put something different in it, you’re going to get bored with it and your actors are going to get bored so I never look at revisiting a play that’s just a casual feel of ‘Hey, I’ll do it,’” Tusing said of the Michael Frayne play, which debuted in 1982 and was later made into a 1992 movie starring Michael Caine, Christopher Reeve, Carole Burnett, John Ritter and Nicolette Sheridan. “It’s always going to have a new interpretation. Steve and I have tried to keep it where, ‘OK, look we don’t have all the answers and each actor who does a role that’s
been done by others, you’re taking something of yourself that’s unique. I don’t want to reprise [previous] actor’s roles and try and mimic them. You want your actors to develop their strengths and comic things to make their character unique.”
“I always wanted to be directed by Randy,” Dodges said, “because I saw what he did for my son [with the Leonardtown High version].”
The 2-hour, 45-minute play is rated PG-13.
“I think people will laugh and have a good time because seeing live theater you get an experience you can’t get from watching television,” Tusing said. “You’re alive and in a relationship with physical actors. It’s interactive and a whole other feeling. It’s important for people to go out and share an experience, and this show is just full of joy [because] it’s a large farce all of us can draw parallels with things in our own lives. It may be tragic at the time, but as time passes you can look back and laugh at it but when the car first breaks down you’re in panic.”