Padua Franciscan High School is proud to announce our Fall Play for 2024, That’s the Spirit, with performances on November 7, 9 and 10.
That’s the Spirit is a spoof of a murder mystery. Psychic Jenny Davenport is discovered murdered in a lodge, which formerly belonged to well-known “illusionist” The Great Marvel. Another psychic, Claire Voyant, recruits a unique cast of characters, including Bella Donna and her ventriloquist dummy, Chester, Anne Boleyn (and her terrible fear of axes) and Ernst Slater (the man with x-ray eyes) to help find Davenport’s missing “magical book.”
Along with a niece, hermit, walking lampshade and “ham actor,” the cast delivers a unique combination of fun and scare in this comedic play.
“It’s a fall play-worthy show,” said director Liz Malloy ’11. “It’s small cast, which is always fun for getting the kids to bond and being able to push them a little further. It is comedy, which our kids, right now, do really, really well, and there are over-the-top characters. It’s going to be a lot of fun for costumes. It’s going to be a lot of fun for our cast, and I’m really excited because there’s a ventriloquist, and we haven’t done anything with puppets in years.
“It’s a good romp, lots of variety of characters and really great punchlines, which hopefully, our audiences will like.”
Based on the Tim Kelly play, the show will take the Padua stage for opening night, on Thursday, November 7, with weekend performances on November 9-10.
There are some unique elements to That’s the Spirit, including a ventriloquist character. In order to prepare her cast for this challenge, Malloy reached out to the Great Lakes Center for Puppetry about working with the students.
“They’re looking at coming in to do a workshop with playing with puppets and telling stories through puppets, and specifically, helping our kids who will be our ventriloquist,” Malloy said. “Hopefully, we’ll see a puppet show and get a workshop to play with some real industry-level puppets.”
Auditions for the production were held on September 3 with callbacks on September 5. That gave the cast and crew two months to build the sets, design and produce the costumes and memorize the lines in time for the opening-night performance.
Given the dedicated members of Padua’s theater program, Malloy says two months is “a comfortable amount of time” to prepare for the shows.
“It’s comfortable because we have really involved, invested kids who are willing to put in the time,” Malloy said. “We’ll rehearse three days a week in two-hour blocks to start on top of crew calls that are happening to build the set, build the costumes, develop all of the effects, put together our production package. We’ll bump those up to more time once we get into the gym.”
Due to other events, the cast and crew will have about two-and-a-half weeks of work on the actual stage inside the Padua Gym. Also, because Padua rents its lights, getting the lighting technology and sound system to operate effectively is done in a condensed time frame.
While it is “certainly a big hurdle,” Malloy believes preparation will be key to delivering outstanding performances.
“That’s normally the biggest hurdle is that transition into the space where we’re actually performing, but we’re so lucky with the kid base we have,” Malloy said.
“They will be at rehearsals; they will be memorizing their lines in study hall. They will show up early, and they will stay late. They really want to be successful, and they want to have a successful program, which makes my job much easier.”
Showtimes
Thurs., Nov. 7 @ 7:30 p.m.
Sat., Nov. 9 @ 7:30 p.m.
Sun., Nov. 10 @ 1:30 p.m.
Tickets