The Falcon Players’ production of Puffs!, or Seven Increasingly Eventful Years at a Certain School of Magic and Magic took place on November 14, 15, and 16th. The play, an unofficial spinoff from the uberly successful Harry Potter franchise, consists of over 50 different characters split amongst the small cast. Read below for an exclusive ‘behind the scenes’ look at the many working parts it took to put this play together.
The play, consisting of two acts, runs for about two hours with many different scenes. Costumes Head, senior Mary Corkery, explained the difficulty behind this show.
“I think that it took a lot more effort for us. We all had to read the script more, [and] it took a lot more planning than I’ve ever had to do. This is my tenth show, and I’ve never had to plan this much and be this invested in a show,” Corkery said.
One of the most important parts of putting a show together is making sure the cast can work well together. Director Lyndal Willis said that the best part of putting a show together is watching the cast become close.
“My favorite part of the rehearsal process is when I get to see the cast I spent time thinking really hard about finally click. Sometimes it happens early, sometimes it happens later. For the Puffs! cast, it was almost immediate. They worked so well together from day one. They were making jokes, having fun with their characters, and supporting each other regardless of if they were a new or old actor,” Willis said.
With the fast-moving pace and difficulty of the show, the actors had to focus on a lot all at one time. Freshman Milana Levaniuk said she found ways to stay calm during the process.
“It can definitely get hectic backstage, but to make it work, everyone has to stay calm [and collected] under the pressure. Sometimes, you have to take a step back, take a deep breath, and [remember] you know what you’re doing and you got this,” Levaniuk said.
Corkery described how the costumes crew made all of the different character changes and quick changes work.
“Certain actors play many, many different characters. [Senior] Michael Stimpson and [junior] Piper Covert both play all of the teachers, so they have very quick changes from character to character. [Junior] Charlotte Talleur only plays two characters, but the changes she has between those characters are a few seconds each. Backstage, it’s a lot of reading the script and knowing [what] comes next, and having the costumes ready to go,” Corkery said.
Each night, one of the characters in the show, Zach Smith, performed a new improv section that was specifically written in the script. Stimpson explained why it was his favorite character to play.
“My favorite character of course had to be the one and only Zach Smith. Even though I [only] played it for a short time, I enjoyed it the most as I got to be creative, energetic and come up with fresh ideas to have fun with all the actors on stage and make the audience laugh,” Stimpson said.
In terms of picking what shows to do for the school year, Willis explained the process behind choosing Puffs! as the play.
“Puffs! was actually presented to me by the Falcon Players student cabinet. They presented a couple fall play options that they had spent time researching, and from those options, we sat down and decided which one we wanted to do. Puffs! won out because it was fun, familiar, and felt like it had a great draw for audiences and auditions,” Willis said.
For its final performance, Puffs! broke the play audience attendance record for the Falcon Players with 188 people.
