Superior students present ‘Foil That Villain’
The comedy, Foil That Villain, was directed by Debbie Merrill with a cast of 13 actors. Three performances were held in the Superior High School multipurpose room last Thursday. Donna McCrea was the driving force to bring this theatre to the school and community.
When lovely young widow Penny Candy and her baby, Ruth, are taken in by her Aunt Praline, owner of The Sweet Shoppe candy store in Boston 150 years ago, little does Penny know both love and danger lie ahead.
The villainous Sidney Swindle is determined to buy The Sweet Shoppe as part of his plan to sell the property to the city for America’s first subway system. Should Praline refuse his offer, Sidney is prepared to do away with her and her heirs in order to obtain the land at public auction!
Jump now to a hilarious chase scene with candy spewing every place and a laughing audience with genuine applause. The multipurpose room of Superior High School was packed at 2:30 p.m., last Thursday afternoon with a special performance for the middle and high school students before the day ended. "Foil That Villain" consisted of 13 actors and a stage crew of three, all who were committed to making a lasting impression, as nervous as a few were.
“Well, my mom was Ruth Winkler and she founded the Paradise Players and she did plays for some 30-some years. I used to always play the piano for her plays,” explains Debbie Merrill who teaches at Superior High School and also directed this performance. “I went to school and got a degree in music and drama. After raising my own kids, I came back to teaching and this is my 3rd year here.”
Merrill went onto explain how this performance came to be.
“One of my favorite kids, he’s really into drama and said that this year he wanted to play a villain and this is the best one I could come up with. It’s a mellow drama, supposed to be over the top cheesy with the bad guy and the hero and the romance,” she laughs.
The cast consisted of 9th, 10th and 11th grade students, and and one senior, Donna McCrea, who played Miss Praline.
Caelen Pittsley was the villain, Sidney Swindle, and explained why he wanted this part.
“Well last year I played kinda the main love interest to the main character and I don’t know if that fit me, so I told Ms. Merrill that I wanted to do something with a villain in it. I feel like I’d be better at being bad.”
When asked if this could be his true nature, he said it wasn’t, but just wanted to try out another personality.
The character Ernest Noble was a policeman and the hero in the performance and was impersonated by Gage Horn who holds a deeper viewpoint on theater over a personal performance.
“All in all, I think this is a great way to get people together to demonstrate talent in showmanship with public speaking and the ability to communicate among peers, just as well.”
Horn looks at his future not necessarily as an actor, “But definitely incorporating the skills that you can learn through this program, and other programs like this.”
McCrea is the one who sparked this performance when she told Merrill that there was a need in the school to do something besides sports. She was going to produce and direct a performance herself until Merrill was convinced.
“She was right. There are a lot of kids who don’t do sports so I said ‘You’re right. There are a lot of them, so let’s do this’ which is what convinced me to do it,” Merrill said.
McCrea wanted to go out with a bang in the performing arts when she graduates this spring and since choir isn’t considered extracurricular, a play took top billing. “There’s a bunch of kids in the school that love doing plays, besides me. And I’ve had so much experience between junior high and high school this was the answer.”
An evening performance at 7 p.m. was their final presentation consisting mostly of family, community residents and friends of the actors who wanted to show their support one more time.