Hinsdale South Students Making ‘Noise’ With Fall Play

With only one year left before she retires, Pam Baker, the director and drama club advisor at , feels the clock ticking.

“I’m trying to do (productions) I haven’t done ever or in a very long time,” she said.

And one she has decided to bring back for the Hinsdale South fall play is , the slapstick comedy by English playwright Michael Frayn. The British play-within-a-play takes the audience behind the scenes of the trials and tribulations of a group of comedic actors both on stage and off.

“I like it because it’s funny,” Baker said.

The musical will be performed at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 27, through Saturday, Oct. 29, in the Hinsdale South Auditorium. Tickets are $8 each.

Noises Off calls for a smaller cast than Baker’s normal productions.

But that’s what she likes.

“With a smaller cast you get to work more intimately with those characters,” she said.

In Noises Off, Act One is set at the dress rehearsal, the night before opening night.

“Everything that can go wrong does go wrong,” Baker said.

Act Two portrays a performance about six weeks into the fictional production, where the play is seen from backstage.

Act Three is the last performance of the production, where the actors attempt to cover up a series of mishaps but only compound the problems and draw attention to the bungling performance.

“It’s a very funny, classic farce,” Baker said.

Hinsdale South junior Maura Carr is playing the role of Dotty in the production.

She is a regular with the high school’s theater organization.

“I’ve been involved in some way, usually on stage, in every show since my freshman year,” she said.

Carr enjoys working with Baker.

“She has some of the most ingenious ideas I’ve ever seen on a high school stage,” Carr said. “She can produce a fantastic play whether she’s working with seniors who have done theater for four years or freshman who are new and it’s their first show.”