Wizards and wands, two very important elements of the new, upcoming play at James Buchanan High School called Puffs. It features the JBHS drama club and portrays a storyline from the Hufflepuff’s perspective of the classic book and movie, Harry Potter.
“[The play] is a parody on Harry Potter and so the puffs are like the Hufflepuffs so it’s the story of Harry Potter told by the Hufflepuffs and their seven years at the school and what all happened to them,” Emmalyn Diehl, who stars as Leanne, said.
It features three main characters, Wayne Hopkins (Jason Petty), Megan Jones (Brylee Smith), and Oliver Rivers (Dylan Showalter). The three pick up different friends and face unique challenges throughout their seven years at magic school. All the Puffs simply want to do would be to go through school to learn how to perfect their magic skills and avoid attacks by outside, evil wizards.
Drama club directors, Kristin Zimmerman and Luke Spurgeon, chose to go with a more unique play, instead of the frequently done and performed plays, so they went with Puffs.
“Our director normally likes to choose plays that maybe aren’t super popular because everybody knows Cinderella, everybody knows Annie, everybody knows Beauty and the Beast,” Diehl said. “Those are all very popular ones that people do, so you like to do stuff that’s maybe a little bit more on the down low that people might not have seen before.”
Laughs have been shared during rehearsals and script readings because of the comedic style of the play.
“Personally, I love the comedy bits in it because it gets a rise out of the directors, it gets a rise out of us, even the people who are playing the part as it happens,” Adelyn Metcalfe, who plays the role of Myrtle, said.
Along with the fun and exciting side of play making, also comes a lot of hard work and stress. Between technical setups, stage props, and costumes, lots of time and effort goes into the creation of a play.
“It can be stressful sometimes so you could have some days you might not have as big of a role as other days,” Metcalfe said. “Sometimes it may be just light work, just a little run through rehearsal of a scene that is fairly easy to get through. Other days you might be helping out with set design and crew, which is a lot more hands-on, weightlifting sort of stuff, which is also helpful because that set is a lot of work.”
All of their hard work will pay off when cast and crew perform Puffs at James Buchanan High School this Friday, March 15 and Saturday, March 16 at 7:00 P.M., and Sunday, March 17 at 3:00 P.M. Please come out and support the James Buchanan Drama Club.
