The opening night for the fall play, “Murder’s in the Heir”, an interactive murder mystery comedy, is Nov. 22 at 7:00 p.m., which will be performed in the auditorium. This production will be South’s first live audience interactive play.
During the intermission between the first and second act of the production, the audience is able to submit a vote through a digital QR code, where they can vote who the murderer will be in that performance. The audience may choose from nine different characters.
Susan Kamrowski, English teacher, is the director of this year’s play.
“PSHS has not performed a comedy in three years. Comedy is challenging due to the timing needed to convey the brevity to the audience,” Kamrowski said.
Due to the comedic aspect of the play, the cast has to work together on the timing of the intentional jokes. This year, the cast has five students returning from previous PSHS fall play performances, those students being Zachary Maranowicz, Charlie Muehlbauer, Kayla Ochotorena, Jacob Schmidt, and Mo Woods.
With the cast working together, along with the production staff, Cougar Boosters, and administration, they have been able to overcome obstacles that have happened during rehearsals.
This year, the cast has been a small one compared to past years, so they have had to work together more as a team. Senior Zachary Maranowicz, who played “The Creature” in last year’s production of “Frankenstein”, plays “Mike Davis”, who is the detective in this year’s production of “Murder’s in the Heir”.
“There’s always ups and downs in any production, it happened last year, and the year [before] that, so I’m not surprised there [were] ups and downs. But, overall, I would say this year has been really good, especially since a lot of this cast is acting for some of the first times in their life, and they are doing a really, really good job at it,” Maranowicz said.
With the play having only 16 total roles and two of those roles having to be played by the same student, it is considered an ensemble cast. An ensemble cast is a cast that typically has an equal amount of screen time or lines.
“All the students have worked diligently at their roles. Many of these students are involved in other sports/activities, but were able to reach the challenge of the task,” Kamrowski said.
Several cast members have had to split time between rehearsals and another extra-curricular. Even though there have been challenges along the way, the contributors to play have been coming together to overcome those challenges.
“I’m very happy that I was doing acting. This has probably been some of the highest points of my entire high school career, especially last year,” Maranowicz said.
This year is Maranowicz’s 9th year of acting in a production, and his final year in a PSHS production. Maranowicz knows that acting takes a lot of work, and that it is not just about reciting lines, but acting them out, knowing what to do while saying the line, and when to do it.
“I was scared I wasn’t going to get casted or make any friends, but being included in the PSHS fall play community has been amazing,” Sophomore Alianna Haynes, who plays “Minerva Walker”, who is the cook in this year’s performance, said.
This is Haynes’ first year being in any PSHS productions, but not her first time on stage. In her eight grade year, Haynes played the role of “Veruca Salt” in Drauden Point Middle School’s production of “Willy Wonka Jr.” Haynes has made many great and funny memories with her fellow cast members, and that Kamrowski has been a big inspiration toher.
“This is the 23rd play I have directed at Plainfield South and [I] have enjoyed being part of every production,” Kamrowski said.
This is the last production that Kamrowski will be directing due to her plan to retire after this school year.
The show dates and times of the play will be Friday Nov. 23 at 7:00 p.m., Saturday Nov. 24 at 7:00 p.m., and Sunday Nov. 24 at 2:30 p.m. Tickets for the show will be sold outside the auditorium doors.
