The Leesville Road High School theater department has big plans underway for the 2014-2015 school year. To get the year started, the department plans on running a production of Vacancy in Paradise: A Comedy in Three Acts for the fall play.
Vacancy in Paradise by John Kirkpatrick is a romantic comedy that takes place in New Hampshire. The plot focuses on Wally, a publicist, who stops into the rundown cabins of the Paradise Glen to use a phone. He immediately becomes infatuated with Ellen Danby, the owner’s daughter, and vows to bring the place back to its hey-day by advertising the promise of romance. The story flips upside down when the Paradise Glen fills with an overwhelming amount of women looking for love, with hardly any men doing the same.
Vacancy follows an array of interesting characters – a sailor with too many girls, a hot-headed fiancee, a scatterbrained mother and a pair of Hula dancing librarians. Audiences of the production are sure to be captivated by both the humor and romantic essence the play exudes.
According to Katrina Tarson, Leesville’s new theater arts teacher, this type of plot is perfect for their target audience: the school’s wide array of students.
“[The plot] is light-hearted and fun, but easy to follow. Characters are likeable and hilariously over-the-top,” said Tarson in an e-mail interview.
Jeanine Wrayno, tech-theater teacher, agrees with Tarson. “It’s funny and lighthearted with characters that are funny. Some are larger than life and yet easy to relate to,” said Wrayno via e-mail.
As an added bonus to the student-friendly plot, the set-up of the show is simplistic. The simplicity of Vacancy played a big part in the decision making process. “We wanted to do a large-cast comedy with big characters and a single set,” said Tarson. Having a single set will make preparation much easier for the both the cast and crew.
The time to audition for a role in Vacancy has passed, but for students interested in working behind the scenes, crew sign ups are September 11 after school. Crew choices include makeup, costumes, set construction, paint, props, lighting and sound.
Under the new instruction of Tarson, it will be interesting to see how both theater arts and tech-theater work together to put on yet another great play.
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