JJHS Fall Drama November 14, 15 & 16

This year’s John Jay High School fall drama is actually not one – but TWO – full-length, one-act plays. Productions will be held on Thursday, November 14 at 7 p.m.; Friday, November 15 at 7 p.m.; and Saturday, November 16 at 1 p.m. and 7 p.m.

Tom Stoppard’s The Real Inspector Hound is a comedy that not only satirizes the theater world, but breaks the boundaries between what happens on the stage and in real life. Utilizing the play-within-a-play storytelling device, Hound opens with two pompous theater critics about to view -- and review -- a clichéd “whodunit”; it is a dark and stormy night in the isolated, country home of the wealthy Cynthia Muldoon (senior Emma Wellington) whose husband has mysteriously disappeared.  Confusion ensues with mistaken identities and multiple murders as the theater critics begin to interact with and swap identities with the onstage actors.  And all the while, no one notices the dead body tucked under the couch in the drawing room of the estate, until the bumbling Inspector Hound arrives.  But by then, the identities of the body, the handsome stranger (senior Evan McReddie), and even the theater critics is called into question as the lights go down on the scene. 

The second show of the evening is The Bald Soprano, Eugene Ionesco’s absurd comedy about human behavior and social conventions. Two couples spend a social evening together, during which time their ridiculous and banal banter reveals their ultimately empty lives, silly relationships, and farcical understanding the world.  Add to these dysfunctional couples a wandering fireman (going from house to house looking for fires) and a house maid who fashions herself a poet of sorts.  All of Ionescos’ characters are either attempting to find meaning or pretending to find meaning in their lives.  (featuring seniors Keeley Sipos-Bocchichio and Evan McReddie).

Directed by teacher Bill Friedman, these two shows also feature the work of senior stage crew members: Student Assistant Director, Elizabeth Brozski; Lighting design, Zander Bolgar; Russell Ohnemus, Brendan Cullen, Dylan Citron, Elena Gallagher, Tim Morris, Marley Bladis, Sarah Herdrich, Emily Ivey, Erin David, Michael Allende