SOMERS, N.Y. - The Somers High School theater group will stage the comedy whodunit "Clue" this weekend, and there’s no mystery as to what is pulling the production together.
It’s the dedication of all involved, and the bond created among the actors.
“There’s really good chemistry, so I think the jokes are going to land really well,” said junior Kristina Giudice.
Giudice plays Mrs. White, one of the iconic characters from the classic mystery board game, along with Professor Plum, Colonel Mustard and so on. They all came to life in the 1985 movie that the play is based on, and each has his or her own quirks.
“You’re laughing at the ridiculousness of all the characters, they all have such big personalities,” said senior Julianna Guida, who plays Mrs. Peacock and also serves as producer of the show.
All of the performers are having a blast with the characters. Giudice enjoys playing the snooty Mrs. White.
“She has a lot of good one-liners, which really adds to the show’s comedy,” Giudice said.
Guida relishes the contrast between her own calm-under-pressure demeanor and Mrs. Peacock’s frantic nature.
“The entire time, she’s panicked, she’s frightened, she’s freaking out,” Guida said.
The shows will be presented Friday, Dec. 13 at 7 p.m. and Saturday, Dec. 14 at 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. in the auditorium of the high school at 120 Primrose St., Lincolndale. Tickets can be purchased at https://omella.com/tuqtv
While the story follows the movie’s plot, the play will be its own creation, thanks to plentiful physical humor and ad libbing encouraged by the script.
“I love all the moving pieces and the character acting,” said Ava Renne, one of the show’s three student directors. “You can add as many things as you want. You can make it as funny as you want.”
To help the plot move, the stage crew is building a puzzle-piece set of walls on rollers that spin to change the scene from one room to another.
“Each L-bracket wall is going to be able to flip into its own room,” said junior Zavier Tejeda, the head of stage crew for the show.
The freedom to ad lib and the physical humor means there will be “more shenanigans and some pop-culture references thrown in,” said sophomore Caleb Kandel, who plays Mr. Green.
Senior Olivia See, another of the directors, said the actors have been encouraged to study their characters deeply and understand how they would react in different circumstances. (The third director is senior Olivia Peck.)
Still, it works only with strong camaraderie among the players and crew.
“It’s hard to do if you’re not all friends with each other, which luckily we all really are,” Giudice said. “So everything goes really well, the scenes go smoothly and the story flows better.”
Article courtesy of Somers Central School District.
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