After weeks of preparation and a little bit of magic, the Oakville Theater Troupe was finally ready to perform. Each year, they work tirelessly to pull together their musical in the fall, learning songs and dances, tap routines and scene choreography, lines and blocking. However, each spring, they tackle a new challenge, something quite different compared to the song-filled performances. In the spring, the theater group puts on a play, a show that has no music whatsoever. No singing, no dancing and less glitz and glam. However, these shows take just as much, maybe even more, dedication and preparation.
“The play this year is ‘Puffs,’” theater director Isabelle Zurcher said. “‘Puffs’ is a spoof about a very famous wizard franchise that a lot of people grew up with, like the books and the movies. But it tells this very famous story from a different point of view, one of another wizard and his friends that are not as famous as the originals.”
Because there is no choreography or showtunes, plays can be very difficult, as actors have to make sure the silence doesn’t get awkward and the scenes run smoothly and feel immersive. However, with the plot of this story, the audience felt far from awkward. From gasps of surprise to laughs of pure glee, every single performer put on the show of their lives.
“The main characters are Wayne, Oliver and Megan, our little wizard trio. Wayne is our center focus, and then his friends, Oliver and Megan, are kind of just his sidekicks,” Zurcher said. “We have a total of 27 people in our cast, which is a lot. They play multiple members of the Puff house that add a silly spin, and then a bunch of other little characters that come in and out that are very familiar to the original wizard franchise.”
The connection between the play and the original material is similar enough for reference, but the play itself has so much wit and whimsy on its own that something entirely different and new has been created to enjoy, while still bringing the heartfelt joy and fun that the audience can’t help but fall in love with.
“The sequence of events is very similar to the original story of this wizard school, but it focuses a lot on the underdogs in the story. It shows the importance of everyone’s story, even if you might not see it immediately, and how every story has different angles and different viewpoints and different people have different experiences,” Zurcher said. “More specifically to this story, it shows how one person might be the hero of the story in one lens, while a different person can be the hero through a different lens.”
The main trio is played by Keaton Rick-Tapella, Charley Ritter and Corin White. They put in hours upon hours of work, and spent a lot of time perfecting their characters to bring forward their best performance.
“I played Megan Jones, this emo girl that just hates everyone and everything and doesn’t want to be a Puff, but at the end, she changes her mind and starts to come around,” Ritter said. “I really connected with the fact that she’s different, not quite like other girls. She’s moody, complicated and determined, and I really empathized with her and her struggles and her need to fit in.”
However, other actors had to focus more on standing out rather than fitting in, with some playing more than five different roles to make sure the quick moving scenes and plentiful cast flowed perfectly.
“In the original Broadway show, there were only about 11 or 12 actors total, so they would all play one of the Puffs and then a bunch of other roles on top of that,” Zurcher said. “Because we wanted to add more students and give more opportunities, we kind of divided all of our roles differently. We made a big Puff ensemble and had all of those students play a few other roles, like Dumbledore, Bippy and different professors.”
Because of the large number of characters and the quick-witted, fast-paced script, the roles needed to fit perfectly to create a correctly balanced flow throughout the “years” of the show.
“The audition process actually was very easy for us this year, and things fell into place very quickly. Usually we have callbacks. We didn’t have to do them for this show, as we just had people immediately fall into the roles that they were meant to be in and all the puzzle pieces came together,” Zurcher said. “We focused a lot on being able to show off different moods, changing your physicality and changing your voice to create distinct characters because there are so many character switches for each person.”
It wasn’t just the actors who worked hard, however, as the stage and tech crews had plenty of work to prepare.
“Our set was very simple because there was so much running around and so much movement, but it had to be functional. We had over 100 props, which is a lot for a play. Stancliffe and our props crew were really incredible about organizing all those — making props, decorating things, all of that,” Zurcher said. “Originally, there were over 700 sound cues, but we narrowed that down to a little bit over 600. There are a lot of sound effects that go into the show that kind of give it this goofy, silly, more comedic effect.”
Although the production as a whole went smoothly, it was a bit of a challenge for some of the actors.
“I’d say to be honest, my biggest struggle was dealing with how fast the show was. It was not like a regular play ‘cause it was just one thing right after another, including props and running around backstage,” Ritter said. “However, this was my first ever play after I’d been in over 30 musicals, so it was quite different, but in a really cool way. So I got to grow more in my acting skills through it, and it was actually really great.”
As the curtain on “Puffs” has been drawn closed, those in the OHS theater program have some advice for future members.
“I would say that you should try out for a play, because it’s really just so much fun. I can’t describe enough how much fun it is to put on a show and go up there and just pretend to be something else and just have fun with all the friends around you,” Ritter said. “It’s such a fun experience to do. I would recommend it to anyone.”
