LAKEWOOD — The Lakewood High School Drama Club hopes the community will check out its peanut-butter-meets-chocolate combination of murder mystery and comedy in “The Butler Did It.”
Lakewood senior Kelsy Kosko, who plays mystery writer Edwin, can recall only one other mystery/comedy that the school’s students have staged during her two years in the club.
Sophomore Devin Smith, who plays “the Colonel,” explained that the club tries to tackle different genres each year, to expand their field of experience and develop their skills.
“This play has a smaller cast than ones we’ve done before, so each actor has more lines and can make their character more interesting,” Devin said.
Junior Keegan Boris, who plays Jenkins the butler, agreed that the characters are “more developed and vivid” than in other shows, while Kelsy and Devin noted that this play has them stretching new muscles as actors.
“Usually I play less serious, more silly roles, so it’s harder when I’m not the one to make people laugh,” Kelsy said.
Devin has been told that he’s a more naturally comic performer, but his role has presented a different challenge.
“My last play, I had maybe ten or twelve lines,” said Devin, who has 200 in this play. “I’m a bit nervous, but I’m also confident in my abilities and the people around me.”
All three actors agreed that, while their play is entertaining and humorous, it also rewards attentive viewers.
“We present them with a lot to think about,” Kelsy said. “They get to try and figure out our characters.”
Devin advised the audience to look for little details in the characters’ behavior, while Keegan promised it would still be easy to follow.
Although Andrew Smith graduated from LHS in 2006, he’s spent all but two years since then returning to its stage to construct its sets.
For “The Butler Did It,” Smith built a living room with two doors, a hallway exit and a fake fireplace during the six weeks before dress rehearsals, on a budget of $500.
“The most challenging part is fitting everything the script requires into the space that we actually have,” Smith said. “We do a lot of recycling. Some of these flats have been here since I was a freshman.”
While most of his work is intended to go unnoticed, since set designs that call attention to themselves can distract from the actors, Smith is proud of the fake fireplace he constructed.
“Its light actually looks like a fire,” Smith said. “It’s the central focus of the stage, so it has to look good.”
“The Butler Did It” will start at 7 p.m. on the Fridays and Saturdays of Nov. 14-15, and Nov. 21-22.
Ticket prices are $6 with ASB and $8 without.
