It became immediately evident to me that “Play On!” was already a hit when I heard so many people who saw the show on Friday night talk about how they just couldn’t pass up the opportunity to see it again on Saturday. Students, parents, and faculty included, “Play On!” had the entire crowd roaring its approval at every turn.

The plot of the show is centered around a community theatre whose preparation for their annual murder mystery isn’t quite going as planned. Yes, that’s right, it’s a play within a play.

Paulina Martz’16 portrays a frustrated director who’s forced to deal with the writer of the show that she is directing, played by Anna Shuff’18, making edits to the show’s script all the way up until opening night. Shuff’s character is scattered, to say the least, and is constantly throwing the cast of her show, Cameron Fachman’16, Ellie Levine’16, Nathan Salon’16, Nichola Lampe 16, Yas Salon’18, and Jack Reifeis’18, into a panic.

Meanwhile, all those involved are dealing with a charmingly aggressive stage manager, played by Sydney Edson’19, along with a stage designer, played by Jenna Kent’16, who couldn’t make a pot of coffee to save her life.

Predictably (spoiler alert) the opening night of this play within a play doesn’t go as the writer would have hoped.

Nearly every line in the attempted show was butchered, every entrance missed, and its plot holes were beyond repair. The chaos of it all was artfully mastered by the cast of “Play On!” as it made each of its “mistakes” with great purpose. Who would have thought that two plays would be even better than one?

Kudos to the cast and crew of “Play On!” for all of their hard work truly paying off. I can’t remember a show in my time at Academy that had the audience laughing as much as it was tonight. It takes a very talented group of people to be able to feign disaster as expertly as they did.

by Caroline Anders’17