ON THE ROOF
Romantic comedy forces NHS Drama Club students to stretch, with gloves on
BY MARLI GUZZETTA
The heady mess of early 20th century love is coming to the stage of Nantucket High School this spring, courtesy of the NHS Drama Club. The students are being pushed to expand their comedic chops with "On the Roof," an adaptation of P.G. Wodehouse's novel "The Small Bachelor."

The story is a Shakespearean-esque ensemble comedy set in 1920s Manhattan, where five couples become human obstacles to one another's chance at true love. The dialogue is riddled with wit and alliteration - giving the lines a lyrical quality that challenges the tongue of the deliverer.

"It's a light comedy that's very Shakespearean, and Shakespearean comedies are always about love. Love lost and regained. Love at first sight. People fall back in love or are in love, " said director Mark White, whose wife, Barbara White, is assisting with the direction and the production all the way down to the costumes designed for the era when the Astors led a legion of wealthy families in New York's ruling social aristocracy.

George Finch is the main character. A "loveable and really bad artist" who is also a wealthy heir, he shoulders the weight of social expectation with the plow of new love. Not born into the upper class, he falls for

A natural comic, Junior Skyler Lendway has been working backstage in previous years, but he's coming out from behind the curtain for this show as Mr. Waddington, Molly's father.

Sophomore Alex Kopko plays Mrs. Waddington, the stepmonster. "She's absolutely repulsive. She's this old, very rich woman who is cruel and wants her stepdaughter to marry up … and she will go to frightening lengths to stop her from marrying an artist," said Kopko, who has been in many Nantucket performances but has never played a "bad character" before. "So it's exciting for me to explore the other end of the acting technique."

The demanding schedule of costume changes requires the actors to have their "wits" about them backstage as well. Barbara White has the task of designing over 20 costumes - everything from flapper outfits to top hats, gloves and canes. The encumbrances of early 20th century dress become a stagecraft exercise in and of themselves.

"When the characters come into a room, they have to remember to take off their hats and gloves and pass the canes to the butler. That's all new stuff for them," Mark said.

Top: Alex Kopko, left, as the scheming Mrs. Waddington, and Russell Bartlett as Rev. Gideon Voules. Center: Sarah Poor is Fanny Walsh. Bottom: Bryan Chitendish, left, plays the pompous Beamish Hamilton, ally to the story's romantic hero, George Finch, played by David van Vorst, right. PHOTOS BY ROB BENCHLEY/The Independent

The intricate de-tangling of agendas and impediments onstage mirrors the challenges that the actors, crew and adult staff working on this play, like any student show, had to handle in order to stage the show. After auditions were held in October, Mark and Barbara White and Music Department Head Barbara Elder - who is functioning as the show's set designer and constructor and also its production manager - had to find a way to negotiate with the students' other activities in order to get them to rehearsal for at lest two hours a day, four days a week. A weekend ago, one prominent character was away at a singing audition for college, and two more were competing at an all-state singing program in Boston.

And then of course, the nefarious but omnipresent problem of funding made for an interesting, backstage plot twist. A board member for Theatre Workshop of Nantucket, Mark is paid to direct the show, but the budget for the production, he said, has been minimal and was not provided by the school.

Much of the show is being underwritten by some of the money made on last year's student production, "You're a Good Man Charlie Brown," according to the director. And it was the student's choice, said Mark, to spend some of the proceeds from last year's show on much needed new Fresnel spotlights for the stage, which cost over $1,000.

"Everybody uses the lighting there," Mark said. "And the Fresnels were older than the school. Some of them were 30 years old and just junk. We just ordered eight new Fresnels with lamps and the works. The kids deserve credit for that."

Because the cast of the school's spring musical this year, "Godspell," will be filled with students and community members alike, the drama club's production could be a nice alternative for those looking forward to an allstudent

Caption - MARLI ...

show this spring. I

ON THE ROOF

+ When: Friday and Saturday,

Jan. 19-20 and Jan. 26-27

+ Where: Nantucket High School (Auditorium),

10 Surfside Road

+ Cost: $10 (general admission);

$6 (students and seniors)