MANSFIELD — Alayna Ross has never gone on stage without a song to sing.
That changes for the Lexington High School and Ashland University graduate when the Mansfield Playhouse curtain opens for the comedy “Play On!” Friday night.
“I have never done a play before,” said Ross, who grew up performing in musicals at the Renaissance Theatre and LHS. “The cast has welcomed me with open arms. This is a place where you don’t feel like you’re the new guy.
“It’s been a really great experience here and I would love the opportunity to do more shows here,” said Ross, who described her character, Violet, as “a pretty face with no brains.”
She makes her Playhouse debut in this show, directed by Doug Wertz. But Ross has already caught the eye of her castmates, including veteran performer Maureen Browning.
“If Alayna does not steal the show, I would be surprised,” said Browning, who has more than 15 years of stage experience at the Playhouse, the Alcove Dinner Theatre in Mount Vernon and elsewhere.
“She is just adorable … the facial expressions.”
Ross and Browning are part of a 10-member ensemble cast in the show written by Rick Abbot that premiered in 1980, often described as a “love letter to community theater.”
It’s a show-within-a-show, focused on a community theater group struggling mightily to produce a show called “Murder Most Fowl.”
The “murder mystery play” was chosen by its director Gerry (Amy Spence Parker) because it was written by an inexperienced local playwright (Mary Ann Calhoun), who agreed to let the cash-poor theater do the show with no royalty fee.
The problems for Gerry are as multiple as the missed cues by her bungling and argumentative cast. It doesn’t help the overly strict director that the show really doesn’t have a murder and the playwright keeps changing the script even days before the show is to open.
Wertz, the Playhouse artistic director who also performs in the show, said “Play On!” is a prime example of how NOT to do community theater.
“I have witnessed it in my years of experience,” Wertz said. “You may have a director that starts yelling at you and screaming at you and causing enough tension that you don’t know which end is up.
“You get nervous. I have seen shows where people actually ended up in tears. This ‘show’ really just goes awry. It just builds and builds and the climax … it just gets funnier and funnier as the show goes along.”
“The (Play On!) cast has been stellar. They have been so dedicated in learning their lines. We were able to get off-book early and the way they work with one another chemically on stage … the expressions, the inflections, the reactions … has just been fantastic,” Wertz said.
Parker, a former school teacher, is the director tasked with trying to whip the murder mystery into place. Her director’s chair sits off the stage by the audience on the apron, adding another dimension to the role.
In only her third show at the Playhouse, and with her largest role, Parker admits a bit of intimidation at early rehearsals on stage with veterans like Browning and Beau Roberts.
“I even joked with Beau, ‘You’re a legend man!'” Parker said Tuesday night before a dress rehearsal. “It was very intimidating for me. But we have built a friendship and we’re all laughing and giggling now. We all get along so well. That makes being in a play so much easier.
“I taught middle school for 14 years. I have always said that was my training for wanting to do plays is because I was on stage every day students.”
Roberts, returning to the Playhouse after several shows at the Renaissance, said he enjoys the “show-within-a-show” concept.
“I have done a couple like this and this one is a little different than the others,” he said. “I just like a good comedy and I like to be back at the Playhouse.
“This is where I did my first show when I was a child. This is kind of like coming home.”
The ‘Play On!’ cast:
Character — Name
Aggie — Maureen Browning
Gerry — Amy Spence Parker
Henry — Doug Wertz
Polly — Suzanne Allen
Saul — Scott J. Stoops
Billy — Beau Roberts
Violet — Alayna Ross
Marla “Smitty” — Grace Riegel
Louise — Kanashay Grayeagle
Phyliss — Mary Ann Calhoun
Show dates:
Jan. 28-29, Feb. 4-5 at 8 p.m.; matinee Feb. 6 at 2:30 p.m.
Tickets and reservations:
Call the box office at 419-522-2883. Box office hours are Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from 1 to 6 p.m. and one hour prior to all performances.
Tickets may also be purchased online at https://mansfieldplayhouse.com/tickets/tickets/
