Thoroughly entertaining and enjoyable, the comic western "Wild Oats" will be presented next week by Centreville High's Theater Department. Featuring a cast and crew of 60, it's a hilarious play about romantic entanglements and mistaken identities.
It will unfold in the school theater Thursday-Friday, Nov. 16 and 17, at 7:30 p.m. each night, and Saturday, Nov. 18, at 2 and 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $8 at the door, or $7 in advance in the cafeteria, the week of Nov. 13, from 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. See www.TheatreCentreville.com.
"If 'Airplane' was a western, this would be it," said Director Mark Rogers. "It's a spoof of serious westerns, and that's why it's so much fun. I've seen it done at several high schools, and it's a real crowd-pleaser."
It's one of the more popular plays for students in Fairfax County because it's one of the few westerns. And, said Rogers, "It has all your stereotypical characters — a damsel in distress, a Snidely Whiplash type and the marshal and sheriff coming in to save the day at high noon."
He said "Wild Oats" is loosely based on Shakespeare, and the main characters are actors in a western town who get caught up in mistaken identities. And after Centreville's recent play, "Bang, Bang, You're Dead," about school violence, said Rogers, "It was good to do a comedy."
"The students are probably having more fun with this than with the average play because it's wacky and crazy and they get to poke fun at every stereotype you can imagine," he explained. "A lot of kids grew up playing cowboys and Indians, and I think that somewhere in everyone's past there's a western."
The action takes place in a small town in Texas in the Wild West of the 1800s. The play follows the story of four, main characters and confusion runs rampant.
Senior Tande Berry, 17, plays Kate Thunder, whose father just died. "She inherits his fortune and now runs the town because she's so rich," said Berry. "Everything goes smoothly until a traveling actor comes to town and she falls in love with him. In the 1800s, it was common for cousins to marry, and I mistake him for my cousin until the end."
She said her character's loud, knows everyone's afraid of her and bosses them around. And she's enjoying her part because Kate's so different from her own personality in real life.
Toughest thing for her, said Berry, is speaking with a southern accent and then switching back and forth between it and a "proper English" accent. "When I see my cousin Harry, I try to impress him by speaking all fancy and acting sophisticated around him," she said.
She especially likes the challenge of being so loud on stage. "I've always played the contained, content parts, so it's really fun to let yourself go," said Berry. "I think the audience will really like the show. There's so much going on and lots to watch, so they won't get bored. There's always a problem, and it's really funny."
Portraying Jack Rover, the romantic lead, is senior Grant Diamond, 17. "I'm best friends with Harry Thunder — who I only know as Dick Buckskin," said Diamond. "And I decide that, to try to win Kate's heart, I'll impersonate Harry." A joker himself, Diamond said, "I love playing him. He's a typical actor — incredibly talented, cocky and wonderfully attractive, much like Mark Rogers."
It's Diamond's first experience as a romantic lead but, he said, "Since it's a farce, rather than a serious drama, there's a lot of comedy so the love scenes are fun to play." The hardest thing, he said, is "playing Jack big and over-the-top, larger-than-life while, at the same time, making it believable that he's in love with Kate."
The best thing about his role? "I get to kiss three girls 13 times total," answered Diamond, without missing a beat. "And the character's a lot like me in that he's someone who very rarely takes himself seriously and just lives life to have a good time."
The show's message, he said, is that "True love — even though you have to work at it — can be found. And in order to live life to its fullest, you have to be able to laugh at yourself."
Senior Maggie Burrus, 18, plays Jane Gammon, who has no mother and whose father is plotting against a family in town. "He wants to marry Amelia Morales, so he tries to lock up her brother," explained Burrus. "I'm the airhead, and I meet Harry — who's pretending to be Dick Buckskin, an actor. And I'm in love with Dick, but I don't know he's Harry until the end."
Got that? If not, it's OK, said Burrus, because "the audience will enjoy the comedic aspect of the show. And people will be trying to figure out what's going on. But every problem is funny, so the audience will be laughing the whole way through."
She enjoys doing something so different from her usual serious roles and says it's "fun to be completely clueless all the time. As Jane, I'm very outgoing and a little slow to catch on to things. I'm a sweet, nice girl, but probably the one most easily influenced."
Portraying Harry/Dick is senior P.J. Rechter, 17. "I'm the real Harry," he said. "I travel from town to town with my acting group." Rechter described his character as "clean cut, always in style and on top of fashion. He's cultured and has knowledge of the arts and likes to be the center of attention and the lead. He thinks he's a better actor than he is, and he's always trying to impress his father."
Rechter says his role's "a blast" because, as Jack's buddy, they have a good time playing off each other's energy. Toughest for him is "being a junior among all these seniors, so it can be a little intimidating. But he especially likes the comedy between Jack and Harry since "it's so easy to make any scene they have together funny because of their contrasting personalities."
As for the audience, said Rechter, "They'll be lapping up every word — they might even have to come back again to make sure they don't miss any jokes. It's a confusing plot, but they'll get it."
Junior Jackie Chiao, 17, plays Crow, the sidekick to Col. Thunder, Harry's dad. "I do anything in my power to make him happy," she explained. "If he gets in a fight, I'll try to save him. I think more about him, than about me."
She said her character doesn't have many limits "so that allows me to do a lot with her and interpret her in my own way. And she's one of the reasons why the play's so confusing because she mistakes Jack for Harry because Jack said he was the "Bold Thunder," and that's Harry."
Chiao's pleased because "I haven't acted this type of character before. She's more serious, so it's challenging to me. But I'm grateful for that because it helps me grow as an actress."
Overall, she said, "The show is hilarious — with both obvious and hidden jokes — and it's very well-written. The humor covers a wide range of topics, and all ages will relate to it."
Playing Muz is junior Andrew Kaberline. "He's probably the most intelligent person in the play," he said. "He's Harry's servant, so people look down on him, but he's the only person who's piecing together what's going on. He's the voice of reason, but no one listens to him."
He said the show's dialogue contains lots of alliteration — phrases such as "sufferin' sidewinders" — which can be a mouthful But he's enjoying his role because "I've never played a smart person before and I get to use a southern accent."
Since the show has a separate cast for the Saturday matinee, junior Shannon O'Neill also gets to play Kate. "She can be rough and tough, but has a soft side that she doesn't want to show," said O'Neill. "It's so much fun to be the big, manly man and show up people. I scare everybody in town, but wouldn't actually hurt anyone."
She likes her part because she gets "to boss people around and have power over them." And she, too, says the audience will have a great time because "every single line has a double meaning and there's so much to laugh at."