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MHS brings strange science to the stage
Published November 17, 2009
MARION — Mad scientists, creatures of the unknown and animals turned human are taking over the Marion stage.
Marion High School’s theatrical troupe are presenting “The Crazy Mixed-up Island of Dr. Moreau” for their fall production on Tuesday, Nov. 17 and Thursday Nov. 19 at 7 p.m. both nights in the Marion High School Activity Room.
After a shipwreck, four travelers find themselves among the good Dr. Moreau and his experimental mutations he creates with a specialized potion, said Susan Neumann, drama teacher and director.
“The play is about a mad scientist who takes beasts and turns them into people, very strange people,” she said. “And because he is on a tropical island, he is undiscovered until shipwrecked entertainers join him at the ‘resort’ hotel. It’s all for fun. There is no deep underling message, it’s an escapist evening.”
Carmen Pardue, senior, said this production is unlike any of the others they have preformed in the past.
“Going from ‘A Christmas Carol,’ which is happy and merry, to being crazy and wild, it’s very different,” she said.
Junior Kelly Scott, who plays the mad scientist’s assistant Montgomery, said this was a script and a character that had her name written all over it.
“We read this last year and I read the part of Montgomery and I wanted to do it so bad,” she said. “This was the only part I tried out for.”
Scott describes Montgomery as a lazy, Kool Aid-aholic that get’s no respect from the bosses.
“Montgomery is an unwilling helper and a drunk — off of Kool Aid, of course,” she said. “Moreau and Hedda do not like me or pay much attention to me, which is why I get away with so much stuff.”
Her character disapproves of the doctor’s deeds, and Montgomery points the stranded performers in the direction of the animals’ talents.
She-wolf, portrayed by Senior Kristie Ikels said the audience follows along with her change, even though they may not see it.
“My character started out as a wolf at the beginning of the play but you don’t see her because I am in the back but you hear me,” she said. “In the middle of the play Dr. Moreau gives me his potion and I turn into a human. This is very different because we get to act like animals. It’s definitely holds your attention.”
After given the elixir, all of the new humans take on the personalities of the animals, said senior Ana Marie Glasco.
“I started out as a big boa snake and end up as a punk-rockish girl at the end,” Glasco said of her character, Alice the Snakegirl.
Neumann said the plays she chooses are determined by the personalities of her students.
“I always look at the people that I have and I could see it,” she said. “After we read it last year, I though ‘Well, maybe next year,’ and here we are. They are a great group to work with and I see this play working.”
This year’s theater classes were reduced, creating an obstacle, but the change also opened the door for more students, Neumann said.
“Since we don’t have our advanced theater class this year, we are having to do everything after school,” she said. “This is a combination of all my classes, theater I through IV, they are all mixed. And since we are doing this all after school, we are allowing freshman to be in it.”
The troupe is not just filled will Marion’s finest drama students, Neumann said, adding that in this school it’s a family affair.
“We have a couple of sets of siblings and a group of cousins,” she said. “They are a fun group, very inventive and we are working with a lot of family.”
Tickets are $4 for adults and children four and under are free.
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