Satire, murder mystery on North Mason stage

North Mason High School Drama Club students perform two one-act plays - "Sorry, Wrong Number" and "The Still Alarm" - at 7 tonight, Friday and Saturday in the school's theater at 71 E. Campus Drive in Belfair.

Regular admission is $8, with students with an ASB card admitted for $5.

Both one-act plays are old-time classics: "The Still Alarm" is 99 years old and "Sorry, Wrong Number" debuted during World War II.

Drama Club Advisor Hilary Gennaro said she considered modern one-act plays for the students in her advanced acting class. Instead, "I wanted to introduce kids to classic plays," she said.

She added, "I wanted two different moods, a murder mystery and satire."

The cast for "Sorry, Wrong Number" features Lux Ellis, Emerson Lyons, Astrall Monroe, Andrew Helmich, Chloe Lemley, Dani Larkin, Maxx Burke and Lauren Jorschumb. The suspenseful noir-thriller by Lucille Fletcher was originally produced as a 30-minute radio broadcast in 1942 on the popular radio show, "Suspense."

In the play, an isolated woman with disabilities who, while trying to phone her husband, overhears the plotting of her own murder. In 1948, the play was adapted into a film that garnered Barbara Stanwyck an Oscar nomination.

The cast for "The Still Alarm" is Lyons, Larkin, Lemley and Gwen Updegrove. The crew is Updegrove, Jorschumb and Orion Mayo.

"The Still Alarm" was written by George S. Kaufman, who also penned the hits "You Can't Take It With You," "Dinner at Eight," "Of Thee I Sing" and "The Man Who Came to Dinner."

The one-act comedy is set in the bedroom of a hotel that is on fire. In the face of the danger, the characters seem distressingly nonchalant in the well-bred manner of English drawing room actors.

The school doesn't stage a showcase for its advanced students every year, Gennaro said.

This is the group's main fundraiser for the year. The Drama Club will present the musical "Little Shop of Horrors" May 30 and 31, and June 1 and 2.