OHS opens its spring play this weekend. Lend Me a Tenor is a comedy about the main character, Max. He is a very awkward and shy guy who is in love with Maggie, the daughter of Saunders who is the uptight manager of the Cleveland Opera House. The plot follows what happens when Saunders’ famous opera tenor,  Tito Merelli, gets sick after showing up late. Some of the cast members were interviewed about the challenges they had with this difficult show.

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Jeff Brooker (Bellhop) singing to try to impress Tito Merelli

Erik Eitrheim, Director

Was it difficult to narrow the auditions to an eight person cast?

“It was very difficult. We had a lot of people audition that were very talented. There were a lot of different combinations we could have had with the talent that we had. It was very hard to narrow down but I’m happy with what we have.”

What difficulties did you have with the production of this show?

“This is a very fast paced show and a very physical show. The timing is very difficult to get exactly right. If they get it right, it’s really funny. If they don’t it’s not funny at all. It takes a lot of concentration and focus. There’s also the physical part of it where they’re constantly throwing themselves around.”

Why did you pick this show?

“I love it. It’s a wonderful farce.  It’s got a lot of really funny moments, and I’ve been waiting for the right group to do it. They’re doing great so far.”

Jacob Wright, Max

What difficulties did you have with learning lines?

“The sheer number of them was an issue for me. I had 536, which is a lot. A big issue with my personal ones is that a lot of my lines are little snippets. It’s a lot of little words I have to say at the right time. When you’re in an actual conversation you know where it’s going, but with one liners it’s more difficult because you have to remember what goes where.”

Jeff Brooker, Bellhop

What difficulties did you have with the farce aspect of the play?

“I’ve got the closet scene and trying to position myself for the farce and comedic aspect of it was very hard because I have to make sure everyone in the audience can see it. If some of the audience can’t see what’s actually going on in the closet it, it loses the comedy for them.”

Kyra Rahn, Diana

What difficulties did you have with the farce aspect of they play?

“I think what we’re struggling with as a whole company is the doors. There’s so many doors, and so many opportunities to break them. We’re constantly repairing doors. We’ve had one come off of the hinges; we had a door knob fly off just last week. Once, we slammed one so hard, that it went through the frame!”

Nick Hagen, Tito Merelli

What difficulties did you have with learning lines?

“Learning how to do the Italian accent and where to enunciate the words and how to pronounce things.”

Isaiah Damitz, Saunders

What difficulties did you have with learning your character?

“One thing that proved more difficult about learning this character is that they’re so heavily based on comedy. To get into the character’s head you really have to dive into the dialogue to figure out what they’re thinking and figure out the meaning of what they’re saying.”

The cast of Lend Me a Tenor is as follows, in order of appearance: Jacob Wright, Greta Jacobson, Isaiah Damitz, Nick Hagen, Erin Ackman, Jeff Brooker, Kyra Rahn and Anna Weisenburger. Students will be charged $5 for entrance, while adult tickets cost $7. Students can see the show on Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m. and on Sunday at 1:30 p.m.