Liberty debuts new play, ‘Zap’
November 6, 2009
By Chantelle Lusebrink
Audiences are in for a spectacle at Liberty High School’s premiere of “Zap” Nov. 13.
“It’s really fun and different, a new play that pokes good-natured fun at cherished theatrical forms,” Katherine Klekas, theater director for Liberty, wrote in an e-mail. “We’re always looking for something that is good but not overdone, and ‘Zap’ is quite clever and new.“It also features a big, talented cast,” she added.
With 27 actors playing 30 roles, your head is sure to spin. But add seven different dramatic theater genres, hundreds of costumes, props and lighting cues, and you’ll be zapped into awe, Seattle Repertory Theatre’s Scott Koh, guest director for the production, said in a press release.
Paul Fleischman, a Newberry Medal winner, wrote the production. Fleischman is an author of multiple poetry books for young readers and novels, like “A Fate Totally Worse than Death” and “Sidewalk Circus,” but “Zap” is his first play.
“Zap” is a combination of seven historical play genres presented on stage simultaneously.
The idea, according to Klekas, is that the audience watching the plays is given the opportunity to flip from one production to check in on another, just as one would use remote controls to change television channels.
For example, while characters are bantering about Shakespearean insults on stage during “Richard III,” other characters will be sleuthing to solve an English murder mystery based on Agatha Christie’s famous novels, while still others will arrive onstage to teleport the audience to scenes from a New York comedy with a style similar to that of Neil Simon.
“I like the hilarity of it,” said student Arielle Gordon, who plays Marsha, a pot-stirring, play-sabotaging gossip. “There are a lot of one-liners that are hilarious and lots of actors who know how to be comedic with their bodies.”
It “has been my pleasure to rehearse with the Patriot Players for the past month,” Koh said in the press release. “The rehearsal process has been a study in controlled chaos, as we all attempt to decipher all the numerous plots and characters, not to mention the use of two rehearsal mannequins.”
The play “has something to say about entertainment and life. It’s set in the suburbs and is about life in the suburbs,” Gordon said. “It has a good underlying message, but it’s also a really funny show.”
After the show, the school’s Improv Club will perform.
Working in teams, the students will perform classics from Improv Games, like “Late for Work” and “Moving Bodies and Genres,” Improv teacher and advisor Jake Nonis said in a press release.
“Every time these students get onstage, the audience loves their clean and clever comedy,” Nonis said. “We want everyone to come join in the fun.”
- 7:30 p.m. Nov. 13-21
- 2:30 p.m. Nov. 21
- Liberty High School
- 16655 S.E. 136th St.
- $9 for adults; $5 for seniors, students with Liberty student identification and children under 12
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Marsha is not a pot-stirring, play-sabotaging gossip! She is a sarcastic, honest truth-seeker…..