Maddie Chu ‘27
Nov 1, 2024
On Friday and Saturday, October 25 and 26, Mercersburg’s Stony Batter Players performed their fall production of Puffs in the Simon Theatre.
The play is a “parody on a certain movie series with wizarding magic, but for copyright reasons we cannot say” according to Keagan Killinger ’28, who played Oliver Rivers, a lively math whiz from New Jersey. He added, “It's through the perspective of a house called Puffs and they're really a bunch of caring, kind, a little bit dumb people going on adventures everyday.”
The play chronicles seven years of schooling ending with an elaborate battle scene.
Nate Cumiskey ’28 starred as eleven-year-old Wayne Hopkins from New Mexico, who, in 1991, was “just playing his Game Boy one day when he got a letter that says that he's a wizard and needs to go to a school for magic in England.” Cumiskey added that after arriving and “finding out that magic is real,” Wayne was “determined to try to become the greatest wizard that has ever lived; emphasis on ‘try.’”
Cumiskey and Killinger were joined by Seren Gibbs ’28 comprising the main trio of the show. Gibbs noted that her character, Megan Jones, was “very emo” and that she “wears a lot of interesting clothing and interesting makeup.”
Regarding preparation for the show, cast members came to the consensus that it involved “a lot of repeating and doing the same stuff over and over. There’s some PGAs where we just sit at a table and repeat lines over and over again to help the memorization process.”
Ary Small ‘27, the narrator, added that it involved “a lot of accent work” and “just a lot of knowing your lines, knowing where you have to go, when and where and just the dynamics with everyone on stage.” Killinger said, “We would go back to our dorms and have to study our lines and memorize everything. It took a lot, like a hundred hours.” Their hard work truly paid off on opening night; according to Small, “Everything went really well.”
The actors also agreed that the set was wonderful. “One of the most beautiful sets I've ever seen,” said Small. “I have to give tech crew a hand because they put in so much work. We’re just trying to work up to what they gave us.”
The basilisk prop was also a huge hit and elicited a lot of excitement from the crowd. It was operated by Emmie Kelley ’28 and was made from a “mattress topper and a cloth,” said Small.
After a terms’ worth of work, the Stony Batter crew of “one senior, one upper middler, two lower middlers, and nice freshmen” as well as “ten students from other PGAs, several tech crew members, and a few faculty” have bonded well, according to director Matt Maurer.
Cumiskey said, “Having such a colorful cast of so many different personalities and all have their own basic gags just makes it really entertaining to watch.”
Alex Ferrari ’28, who played J. Finch Fletchley, said, “All my castmates are now some of my closest friends and Mr. Maurer and Ms. Doubell have been amazing.”