By Georgia Thelen
Review Staff Writer
The Lake Orion High School Thespian Troupe 2898 will be performing their fall production of The Man Who Came to Dinner at the Lake Orion High School Performing Arts Center Nov. 17-19 at 7 p.m. and Nov. 20 at 2 p.m.
“It’s a comedy but it’s a Hollywood satire,” said director, Scott Finn.
The Man Who Came To Dinner is sure to be a crowd-pleaser with its witty humor and dynamic characters. The show is based around the slip and fall accident of a playwright, Sheridan Whiteside, who is constantly name dropping to show his status, inviting convicts to dinner and hosting boisterous celebrity guests in a home that is not his.
“He’s such a smarmy, self important kind of persona and at the end we finally see that he does have a heart,” said Finn.
Finn wanted to put on a fall production that had a sizeable cast, 37 actors to be exact. He also felt that The Man Who Came To Dinner had a quality script with many solid characters and different persona’s included. The show is also a period piece, which Finn says are always great choices because they mix up the mood, set and costumes for the student actors.
“I really enjoy how zany and outlandish this show is. I think the vast variety of characters in the show mirror the over-the-topness of Sheridan Whiteside himself… I think the show is unique in the sense that the audience never seems to know what’s going to come through the Stanley’s seemingly revolving door,” said Madison Creech, who plays the part of Mrs. Dexter.
The main lead roles in The Man Who Came To Dinner are Sheridan Whiteside and his charming secretary Maggie Cutler, played by Josh Johr and Cayenne Johnson, respectively. The script also has many strong supporting roles like the Stanley family and Whiteside’s confidant, Lorraine Sheldon.
“I absolutely love the show. It’s so funny and working with all my friends is so much fun. My role is definitely one of the most fun I’ve ever played; Mrs. Stanley is hilarious,” said Megan Lareau.
The student actors also get to help with the design and production of their shows as much as possible. They build the set with assistance from parents and Finn on the weekends. Finn also started an Intro to Technical Theater class this year at LOHS and those students get to learn about set building and design and have helped out the past couple of weeks as well.
“When they walk out of here I want them to get a feel, if they choose to do this in college or maybe community theater, that we want to be as professional as possible, we want to have responsibilities that we own up to,” said Finn.
Tickets for The Man Who Came To Dinner can now be reserved through email at Loboxoffice@lok12.org.