News & Events 2008-2009

Black Comedy in Blair’s Blackbox Theatre

The Blair Academy Players continued their 2008-09 season by presenting Black Comedy by Peter Shaffer in the Wean Studio Theatre of Armstrong-Hipkins Center for the Arts in November.

The Tony Award-winning playwright of Equus – currently playing in New York – and Amadeus, Shaffer gives the audience a hilarious farce in Black Comedy. London sculptor Brindsley Miller (junior Chris St. John) has a very big night ahead of him as he prepares both to meet his debutante fiancée’s (sophomore Abby Salzberg) father, Colonel Melkett (senior Matt Ziff), but also to show his sculpture to eccentric millionairess Gretchen Bamberger (junior Jen Shields). If Bamberger likes his work, Brindsley will have it made as an artist and will appropriately impress the Colonel so he’ll give his consent to the marriage between his daughter and the sculptor. However, right before his important guests arrive, a fuse in the apartment house blows leaving the characters in the pitch black. Hilarity ensues as Miss Furnival (junior Asia Bryant), the teetotal spinster from upstairs seeking refuge from the dark, joins the party, Harold Gorringe (sophomore Cole Voynick), Brindsley’s flamboyant and fastidious neighbor from across the hall, returns early from a weekend holiday, and Brindsley’s ex-girlfriend Clea (senior Lisa Biletska) arrives unexpectedly. Sophomore Savannah Mourao rounds out the cast as Schuppanzigh, the philosophical London Electricity Board worker who comes to repair the blown fuse. The play is student directed by senior Maggie Mohen.

“Farce is a difficult genre to perform, especially for amateur actors, as precise comic timing and demanding physical agility are essential to its success,” said director Micki Kaplan McMillan. To help educate the actors in this difficult endeavor, Micki hired Ray Rodriguez, professional actor and instructor at Adelphi College, fight choreographer and regional representative of the Society of American Fight Directors, to assist with the task.

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Updated 11/17/08

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