BBN Insiders provide a sneak peak into the well-reviewed Clue production from this past fall
Renette Antoine
Anngelie Gomez-Munoz
Valentina Lopez
For 2 and a half months, we worked hard on making Clue: On Stage. Trying to perfect every scene, cue, and blocking to bring this board game murder mystery to life at Piper High. This is the story of how it all went down.
Acting Perspective
Hi, I’m Renette Antoine and I played Wadsworth, the british butler at Boddy Manor. Being a part of Clue was such a fun experience, and gave me an opportunity to grow as a performer. I was able to know what to look at for character work and how to make a character my own. Clue is a very dramatic play, meaning comedic timing and chemistry between characters/actors is essential. Throughout the rehearsal, we had to memorize our lines and learn cues for blocking and sound in a short amount of time.
On our long rehearsal nights, which lasted until 8 or 9, we worked hard on cleaning up scenes and learning how to use our props as well as how our characters would act using them and how it pertains to the scene.
One of my favorite parts of the show was the dinner scene. All of the guests had arrived and we really get to see these characters’ personas. Mrs. Peacock (Samantha Salazar), is an old “non-alcoholic” Southern Christan who always found comedic timing, and her mannerisms made her character her own. Another character was Mr. Green (Nora-Marie Ortiz), a rule-follower who’s timid, a klutz, and anxious all the time. Or was it really Larry Goodman, who is an FBI agent who disguised himself as Mr. Green to end his first case out on the field, with a BIG bang, killing Wadsworth and sending the rest of the guests to jail? Creating a character and convincing the audience that you are that character takes time and effort to expand your creativity.
An obstacle we faced was the hurricance, which made us lose about a week of rehersals. This had affected us badly because of lost dress rehersals, scene clean ups, and cues. But in the end of all of that, we persevered and ended the show on a strong high note.
Tech Perspective
Hi! I’m Valentina López, one of the stage managers of this years production, Clue.
From the beginning of the production, lights, sound, set, costumes, and makeup crew, were already creating ideas for this mysterious show.
Me and Leilani (Stage Manager) got together with the lighting and sound designers, everyday to get the cues done, and coordinating each and every cue to it’s scene. It’s not an easy job, especially when we have to do it corresponding to the dialogue and action of the actors.
For our set designer(Anngelie Gomez-Muñoz), she already had the blueprint of what she wanted to see on the stage. With help from her family and set crew, and a little budget, no money from the school, our set was student built. It was incredibly difficult for the stage managers, set, and costume designer, to handle school work and the play, but thankfully, they pulled through.
Unfortunately, due to the hurricane, they had no tech week, and the mics arrived the day of the show, so it was difficult to do a dress rehearsal with their full costume and makeup. Our opening night, was basically our test run, which was a big success.
Our Cappies show though, which was closing night, was the the most stressful, especially for our techies. A bunch of high school critics from South Florida came to critique our show and we needed to perfect everything that went wrong on the previous shows. We did a double sound check, got the mics situated, finished up set and prop details, and practiced lines and character work with the actors. Though stressful, closing night was the best and most mysterious night of all.
