"Noises Off" Opening at Niwot High School on Nov. 10, 2022

By the time the curtain rises for the opening night of the Niwot High School theater production "Noises Off," the student actors and stage crew will have clocked more than 150 hours of rehearsal time.

Two casts alternate shows on Nov. 10th, 11th, and 12th, performing on a magnificent set designed by Jason Watkins, the NHS teacher in charge of stage technology. To design the set, Watkins used inspiration from pictures online and made a 3-D model to figure out the inner workings of it, making sure along the way that the upstairs portion of the set was stable enough that students would not fall through it.

"I'm just impressed and mesmerized by what he was able to do," theater instructor Amanda Faust said. "Because I have never been able to see that at this stage of high school. What he's done – I'm in awe of him."

According to Faust, who graduated from UNC-Greeley in May, directing the show is a long-time dream come true. She fell in love with "Noises Off'' during her senior year in high school. Her theater director at the time wanted to direct the show, but the school didn't have the budget, so Faust and other students designed it for her, but it was not performed until the year after Faust graduated.

When she got the job at NHS this year, Faust knew she had to do it. "I wanted to go out with a bang for my first year of teaching here," Faust said, "and wanted to put on this big production. To show what I can do."

There were a few minor snags during rehearsals. Pali Sauer, who plays Poppy Norton-Taylor, shared her thoughts about the experience. "There have been some ups and downs. Especially how chaotic the show is ... the blocking. I feel like everybody's been doing so good at keeping the lines and the blocking together, which is something that I feel like we really struggled with when we started."

Blocking was difficult because the cast had only a week to work with the set. "The choir concert got pushed back so much this year that we had to push back the build for the set because it was so big. So, we only had the set for a week," Faust said, "and we had to build the set in a week. So that was difficult, specifically for this show, because the show is a lot of going through different types of doors and it's so intricate and choreographed. It's hard to do that without a set."

The cast and crew found creative ways to work around the problem. They outlined the stage with tape on the classroom floor and drew pictures of the set. Faust explained, "We did as much as we could to make the students visualize what the set looked like, so they knew exactly where they needed to be right when we got on our set so that we wouldn't have to worry about those kinds of things."

"I'd say it definitely was a surprise working on the show for a while without the set," said Hosannah Adams, who plays Mrs. Clacket and Dotty Otley. "Then transitioning to working with the set and just seeing how that changes the dynamic of it. I think when you have physical doors, and props and things it just kind of brings it to life more and it just was exciting to kind of see that," Adams said.

Originally, Act Two was Faust's favorite, but that changed when they started rehearsing Act Three. She said, "These kids have just taken it and made it their own so well that Act Three, I still am laughing. And I've seen it 20 million times already. It's been so inspiring to see them put their spin on it and see how talented these students truly are.

"I couldn't have asked for better students. They want to push themselves; they want to challenge themselves; and I will say that's probably the biggest accomplishment that we've had. They just keep adding stuff every show that just makes it better and better and better."

To audition for the cast, students selected a monologue from the show. "And then we did an improv workshop with callbacks to see how physical they could be, because it's such a physical show, with comedy and everything," Faust said. "I needed to see what kids could really think on their feet. And we gave them scenarios from the show, like, 'You're confused and don't know how to finish the sentence.' And then they had to improv a scene. So that was really telling in their callbacks, who could really come in and be their character and really give their full commitment to what they were doing."

The students approach their craft with dedication. For example, Grace DeRose, who is cast as Timothy Allgood, said, "Trying to imagine yourself in the situations and then trying to figure out how someone, a different personality, would react - trying to put those two together and figure out the perfect way to react to these situations. It's not just lines, it's actual relationships that are happening on stage. That definitely helps a lot when you're trying to make the performance more fluid."

The show is full of laughs and surprises, but the director noted one particular moment audiences might want to watch out for: "There is this one thing that we added that is really funny. The first time Tim is mentioned, we have him popping out from a corner. But it is in a corner that you're not specifically looking at, so I would say, look out for Tim in one of the two corners on either side of the stage."

But there is something for everyone, Faust added. "There is definitely never a moment where it's not something to be seen. It's super funny, and these kids are just so committed and so good."

"I'm so glad that I found out about this play," Sauer said, "and I think it would be fun to do it later in life and look back on it and be like, 'Ah! I remember when I did that as a freshman.'"

Rori Ann Barchers, who plays Belinda Blair and Flavia Brent, added enthusiastically, "Theater has become my biggest passion in life. I feel like it's gotten me through a lot of hard times. And the relationships that I've made, especially here at Niwot over the past three years through theater, have just changed my life.

"It's been phenomenal. Especially this show. I've learned so much, and got to meet so many people and really get to explore acting through movement. I honestly don't know what I would do without theater. I just want to continue doing it the rest of my life and see where that takes me."

“NOISES OFF”

Thursday, Nov. 10 at 6:00 p.m.

Friday, Nov. 11 at 6:00 p.m.

Saturday, Nov. 12 at 11:00 a.m. and at 6:00 p.m.

Tickets: $10

Tickets can be purchased online at: https://www.vancoevents.com/us/events/landing?eid=24796&qr=true