Screwball comedy opens at high school
By:Jack Baney
Bob, the main character of the Hillsborough High School play “This must be the Place,” by Monk Ferris, isn’t having a very good day.
He’s been proposed to by a woman he doesn’t love, had his identity usurped by his best friend, been slapped across the face several times, and faced the threats of a bat-wielding thug.
Bob isn’t taking any of this very well, either — he bristles with nervous energy throughout the play, complaining about everything and erupting into outbursts like “Married — you and me? Are you nuts?” and “You screwball!”
It is the latter outburst that describes “This Must Be the Place,” an old-fashioned screwball comedy opening tonight.
The play features such well-worn screwball devices as mistaken identities, a character receiving a mistaken impression through eavesdropping, and a case of amnesia that keeps coming and going.
But it is the play’s healthy dose of indignant yelling that appeals to Craig Gross, who plays Bob.
“I like Bob because it’s like a stress relief,” he said. “I like to get angry a lot.”
Bob is a famous painter working on portraits of both his girlfriend April March (Alycia Infante) and heiress Gloria Desmond (Danielle Pugliese), who has a nutty aunt (Melissa Pikulin) and an icy mother (Katie Magarelli).
Meanwhile, Bob’s friend Roger (Ryan Dunne) is impersonating him to impress showgirl Candy Cluster (Nicole Fulmino), and a thug named Julian Glester (Ryan Dunne) and a detective named Wendell Zolotnick (Ilya Livsits) are getting in everyone’s way.
Despite its often old-fashioned-sounding dialogue — characters talk about “hanky-panky” and refer to money as “dough“ — the play contains several humorous references to contemporary subjects. The cast added many of these, including references to “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,” Nissan Sentras and the high school’s construction woes.
“We had a lot of freedom to experiment with what we think is funny,” said Alycia.
“We love doing that,” Nicole added. “It’s like complete improvisation.”
The play also contains a great deal of slapstick, like when the apparently psychotic Justin chases fellow cast members around the stage.
The physical aspects of the show often can result in pain — handcuffing Wendy to Carl accidentally hurt her wrist during rehearsal Monday, for example — but it’s worth it, said Craig.
“Once you have the audience laughing, it’s like it doesn’t hurt anymore,” he said.
The show’s physical nature also makes it a challenge to direct, said student director Ginny Przyborowski. “The biggest challenge is that you have to do everything,” she said. “I feel like I’m responsible for everyone.”
However, Ginny said one aspect of the show has been honed to near-perfection.
“Acting is the biggest thing, and I think we’re definitely there right now,” she said
And working to get to that stage has created some strong bonds among the play’s cast, said Melissa. “Acting together, we’ve become so close — we’re almost like a family,” she said. “We support each other in everything, on stage and off.”