Laughter times two: High school spring play is double feature of comedies set for April 20-21-23

Years ago, movie-goers would sometimes get to view a double feature at the theater.
Audiences attending the Minneota High School spring play will get that same adventure. A double-feature comedy entitled "The Night of the Disastrous Duo" will be presented at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 20 and Friday, April 21; and at 2 p.m. on Sunday, April 23.
"There will actually be two shows. 'The first is 'Bad Auditions by Bad Actors', which will be about 30 minutes long," said Seraphim Surprenant, who is directing the spring play this year. "The second is '10 Ways to Survive the Zombie Apocalypse', which will be about 40 minutes long."
"Bad Auditions by Bad Actors" is a show where a casting director needs to find her Romeo and Juliet for the play. Unfortunately, those auditioning for the parts have other ideas on how the characters should be played."
In "Ten Ways to Survive the Zombie Apocalypse", two narrators lead the audience through 10 different ways to make sure you can survive the oncoming zombie apocalypse.
"I think audiences will enjoy these plays because the cast is having fun," said Surprenant, who is a Language Arts teacher here. "Plays are always more enjoyable when the students get to have fun and play out-of-this-world characters."
Surprenant felt the two plays would be enjoyable for both the cast and the audience. She had previously directed "Bad Auditions by Bad Actors" at the Grand Kabaret in New Ulm in 2017.
"The kids I worked with at the time had a lot of fun with it, and I thought it would be a good fit here," she said. "Zombies was chosen to help draw more kids to audition and participate in the theater program here. We had four actors try out who had not tried out before. I also wanted to do two comedies that would make people laugh and show off the strengths of our more experienced actors."
Surprenant was also involved in three musicals in high school and continued to work in theater in college, obtaining her Bachelor's Degree in Theater Arts in 2020.
Sets for the two shows put the director in a similar situation as the costuming did. "Bad Auditions" required very minimal pieces such as a table, three chairs and a flat that was painted to become Juliet's balcony. "Zombies" required sets to depict how destroyed the world had become.

Cast List
("Bad Auditions by Bad Actors")
Casting Director: Autumn Dovre
Roger: Joe Voit
Melissa: Elena Myhre
Coach: Briley DeVos
Josie: Imogen Moriarty
Maria: Addison Buysse
Martin: Bradyn Hopper
Catherine: Grace Landrus
Meg: Addison Buysse
Charlize: Johnny Fales
Agent: Elizabeth Garvey
Josh: Noah Harms
Eleanor: Kylie Callens
Amy: Gretta Buysse

("Ten Ways to Survive the Zombie Apocalypse")
Narrator 1: Bradyn Hopper
Narrator 2: Gretta Buysse
Girl: Autumn Dovre
Nanna: Taylor Clark
(Scene 1, Scene 4, and Scene 10)
Christy: Autumn Dovre
Jimmy: Noah Harms
Sam: Joe Voit
Susan: Elena Myhre
(Scene 2 and Scene 6)
Christy: Grace Landrus
Jimmy: Johnny Fales
Sam: Noah Harms
Susan: Elizabeth Garvey
(Scene 8 and Scene 9)
Christy: Elizabeth Garvey
Jimmy/Joan: Grace Landrus
Sam: Noah Harms
Susan/Sean: Johnny Fales
(Scene 3, Scene 5, and Scene 7)
Christy: Kylie Callens
Jimmy: Joe Voit
Sam: Johnny Fales
Susan: Taylor Clark
Zombies: Addison Buysse, Briley DeVos, Abby Clark, Imogen Moriarty, Joey Clark