A cast of six.  A set primarily consisting of four trunks.

This year’s production of Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps may be small, but the cast and crew aim to have it be the biggest play yet.  By the time the curtain goes up on November eighteenth, the production will be gussied up with a poster courtesy of the Graphic Design Club, and, potentially, some original music by NPHS students.  The Fall Play is typically dwarfed in comparison to the Spring Musical, and this addition of outside effort hopes to equalize the two, as well as make good use of the artistic talent we’re so lucky to have at NPHS.  Additionally, this is the first year tickets for the play will be available online, making the show more accessible in general.

Within the play, the cast and crew are working tirelessly to build a production deserving of all this outside effort.  The 39 Steps is a parody of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1930s spy thriller of the same name.  The plot follows Richard Hannay (played by Marc Mekhanik), a bored man whose life is turned upside down when a mysterious woman (played by Emily Peterson) involves him in a conspiracy that jeopardizes the safety of the UK, if not the whole world.  For Queen and Country, Hannay must journey across the United Kingdom, confronting a motley crew of performers, salesmen, police, thugs, and many more (played by John Ertman and Henrik Harman).  On the way he will also do his best to find love, first in the form of an innocent Scottish girl (played by Elizabeth Dreitlein), and then a woman who is initially skeptical of Hannay’s claims (played by Lara Gavagan).  The show has a lot of physical comedy, with the cast and crew making up for the lack of people and props themselves, switching characters mid-scene and improvising trains and cars from trunks and chairs, all while the show barrels on towards its climax.

For all the efforts of those involved, in the end the play is only as successful as attendees make it.  All that effort, all that time, and all those hours go into two nights.  Those two nights are Friday and Saturday November 18 and 19.

Support your fellow students, and attend our production of The 39 Steps.