Layla Wilke-Conant

NEWBERRY-KEELER

“Inspector, perhaps we should let the ‘stunt doubles’ go?”

HENRI 

(he’d almost forgotten)

“Oh, yes, of course. Thank you everyone. We appreciate the [h]’elp”

The air is still light from surprise when the characters announced that they would be taking unsuspecting viewers up in front of the audience to orchestrate a piece of the performance with the cast. “It was really fun to be a part of the production, even for a few minutes…The show was hilarious and I loved playing my part as the dead body,” senior Grace Sparwasser said. 

    The selected members were then posed and moved around on stage, while the scripted characters analyzed the scene. Following that, the seated audience pointed out that a character from the scene had entered and left without any of the characters noticing: THE MUMMY!!

This type of audience involvement was carefully orchestrated by the director and writer of Cursing Mummies, Michael McCandless. The play was first performed in 2005 at Creighton Prep, however, it has been tweaked and changed since. “I’m still working with it. I sit in the back of the theater during performances and take notes on what parts of the script spark reactions from the audience. I then take that information back to my laptop to rework any parts that didn’t come off as well as I imagined,” McCandless said. 

This is the first full-length original comedy McCandless has written. “Comedy is much more of a challenge because we all have our own ideas of what is funny,” McCandless said.

As he began the telling of the murder mystery, he had three perspectives to analyze. He had to figure out, as a playwright, how he wanted to formulate the story. He then had to switch his view to that of a cast member: “If I were acting in it, what would I want in a character?” McCandless said. Lastly, he had to look at it from an audience’s perspective. “I didn’t want the audience to merely laugh. I wanted them to be part of the joke,” McCandless said. 

An audience’s positive energy during a show is key to a good performance, but this production goes beyond that. Cursing Mummies “create[s] an experience where the audience IS part of the production… Interactive theater is another inventive way of encouraging audiences to get off the couch and attend live events,” McCandless said. 

The cast also has to adapt to the script and, more importantly, the difference of performing with an audience versus empty practices. “I feel like the audience interaction feels different because it’s in real time and it’s almost as if they are reacting the same way your character is,” senior Hannah Butler said. The cast members see a new side of theatre with this show, when they are able to enter the audience and pull a stranger up on stage with them. “It may be a bit embarrassing for them at first to be called out that way especially if they aren’t expecting it, but I feel like they also love it,” Butler said. Concluding the performances for the year can be emotional for seniors. It is their last high school production, and for many, theatre plays a huge roll in their lives. “When performing with an audience and hearing their reactions to different lines and the stuff you have worked on for four months, it makes it all worthwhile and endearing,” Butler said. 

Overall, this play provided a way for the audience to couple with the cast to create the entrancing show that was Cursing Mummies. “The positive atmosphere is not present in every school, and it confirms time and time again what a special place Marian had become for me,” McCandless said. Marian students and audiences made the show their own.