Our Turn: Deceiving Granny

The next theater production to hit the Rhinelander High School stage

By Kristin Higgins

Northwoods Community Secondary School advisor and drama production director

I love directing plays. However, it’s very difficult to find a good play that makes us laugh, that is appropriate for middle/high school students, with enough female characters, without major set pieces, that we think will appeal to our audience in Rhinelander. Since we performed Annie Play Will Do last spring, Roddy MacMillan and I have been perusing many, many scripts trying to find something for this spring’s production. After hemming and hawing, and throwing many of them on the floor, we FINALLY landed on Deceiving Granny by Michael J. Taylor.

The play’s synopsis is: Newlyweds Sam and Margaret Howard discover they are in line to inherit $3.5 million from his great-grandmother whom he has never met. But before she is willing to add them to her will she wants to meet Sam and his new wife face to face to make sure they are “worthy.” Of course, nothing goes smoothly, especially since Sam is hiding an expensive diamond necklace for his boss, two burglars mistake their home for another, and the neighbor’s vague grandmother has wandered off…and may be somewhere in their house! Their friends, Rob and Kelsey, go to extremes to help the newlyweds when they think the “real” great-grandmother has died after eating peanuts. With Rob dressed and acting like an old lady, can the two couples pull off their scam in spite of a curious cop and cautious attorney? The funny and frantic action never slows in this farce!

Auditions will be held at the RHS auditorium on Tuesday and Wednesday, January 12 and 13 from 3:30-5 p.m. and are open to any RHS/NCSS student. Rehearsals will begin on Thursday, January 14 and performances will be March 3-6 at the RHS auditorium. We look forward to producing another fabulous play!