“Clue” started out as a board game in 1949, became a popular movie in 1985 and will hit Lincoln’s stage as a play this December. This year the drama program has created two distinct casts for the production. One cast is called the Library cast and the other is the Study cast.
Theater teacher and director Tracie Talerico believes that the popularity of “Clue” made it a challenge to produce.
“… Some of the challenges of putting on “Clue” is that it’s so iconic and it’s well known, because it’s not only taken … from a very popular board game, but an actual very popular movie as well. [We are] really trying to make sure that our production does those iconic productions justice,” said Talerico.
Senior Carmen Lahti, the stage manager, says that another challenge of producing “Clue” is that they need to create multiple rooms for multiple scenes.
“One of the big changes is we can’t do very quick scene changes [like a movie can], so we have to be able to build bridges between scenes,” said Lahti.
Junior Jo Gervais plays Yvette in the Library cast. She believes that one of the biggest challenges of putting on this production has been the existence of two casts. Typically shows take 12-14 weeks and over 200 hours of work to produce. Since “Clue” is a double cast, rehearsals are split between casts.
“It’s really limited our ability to rehearse to the full extent, but I think that ultimately it’s going to be a really good thing too. … We’re not rehearsing together at all, which is very different from what we’ve done in the past, in the hopes that it will create two very distinct casts with completely different acting choices,” Gervais said. “We’re technically not supposed to work with the person who has the same role as us and we’re not supposed to watch them perform at all, so while it’s a challenge, it poses really interesting, unique opportunities.”
Gervais explains that watching the person who shares their role perform would impact their own performance.
“You might see an acting choice they make and think, ‘Oh I should do that’ or you might hear the way that they do their character’s voice and it might affect the way that you do your voice, and I think the thing about acting is that there’s not really a right way and a wrong way as long as you do it with decent characterization, and so every actor does it differently,” said Gervais.
Talerico describes the process of putting on this production as a long one. For her, the process begins with choosing the right show to produce.
“You always want to pick a show that is not really anything like the show you did just before and you always try to look for different ways to train students in different kinds of mediums whether it’s a musical or a non-musical production like “Clue”,” said Talerico. “…[Then] you move into auditioning, casting roles and then starting to design for things like costume design, set design, [and] lighting design. [Then] you go through rehearsals and then ultimately everything kind of comes together at the end.”
Gervais believes the performance from the Library cast and the Study cast will be distinct from one another.
“One thing about this play is that because it’s double cast, we’re really encouraging people to come see it twice and see both casts because of how unique the two casts are from each other. It’s going to be a really unique experience between the two of them if we do it correctly, so [I] highly encourage people to come check it out,” said Gervais.
