Puffs, Fall Production

Description

The Penn Yan Academy Drama Club will stage its Fall Production of Puffs, Or: Seven Increasingly Eventful Years at a Certain School of Magic and Magic by Matt Cox from October 25-27.

Everyone knows the story of a certain “boy wizard” and his time at a certain “famous magic school.” Puffs, however, is not that story. It is the story of the Puffs, who were...you know...there too.

While a certain famous magical trio were off having their adventures, another trio of friends was being formed. Wayne Hopkins (Senior Collin Cummings) discovers that he is a wizard and heads off to wizard school, convinced that it is his chance to finally be the “Chosen One,” to do something big that lets him leave his mark on the world. He befriends two other outcasts, Oliver (Senior Jacob Eskildsen), who wishes that magic school could be more like regular school and Megan Jones (Junior Amelia LeVea), the daughter of a famous dark witch who wants nothing more than to follow in her mother’s super-evil footsteps. The three friends find themselves in the Puff house, a group who seems destined to be nothing more than the background characters in other more interesting stories, despite having no shortness of heart. Our narrator (Sophomore Massan Jensen) tells the story of these three seemingly unimportant people as they navigate seven extremely eventful years at magic school and come to some important understandings about what is truly important and how to find happiness in a normal life.

Wayne, Oliver, and Megan are surrounded by a lovable, though fairly pathetic, group of misfits including Ernie Mac (Freshman Johnathan Shaw), Hannah (Freshman Emmaleigh Stempien), J. Finch (Freshman Garrett Hilton), Sally Perks (Senior McKelvie Jensen), Susie Bones (Freshman Sophia Smith), Leanne (Junior Riley Dallos), and Cedric (Junior Lee Miller), the one Puff that people actually know. The story also features a versatile ensemble including Emilie Trab, Lenitza Ochoa, Natasha Rivers, Mary Gulick, Meredith Hanley, Skyann Morgan, Samanha Trank, Emma Schaffer, and Vanessa Martinez, all of whom give life to many different characters throughout the show.

Fans of the “boy wizard” will go crazy at this rip-roaringly funny tribute to a cultural phenomenon. But wait? You say you know nothing about the “boy wizard?” Fear not, dear reader! Puffs is a story all its own, and requires no knowledge of any other fancy famous British spellcasters. It is, at its heart, a story of the underdog and what it really means to leave your mark on the world.

Puffs, directed by PYA Choir and Theatre teacher Jessica Kinsey and PYA English teacher Brian Cobb and stage managed by Sophomore Casey Marcellus, will run Friday October 25th through Sunday, October 27th in the Penn Yan Academy Auditorium. Friday and Saturday shows will begin at 7PM, with a Sunday Matinee at 2PM. Presale tickets are available at Long’s Cards and Books, Milly’s Pantry, Pinckney Hardware, or online at http://pyadrama.booktix.com for $9 for students/seniors and $10 for adults. Tickets can also be purchased at the door for $10 for students/seniors and $11 for adults. Season passes are also available for $__ and include admission to all three PYA Drama performances (Puffs, Bright Star, and the 24-hour play festival) for the ticket holder in addition to up to four discounted tickets ($5) per pass for each production. Contact pyadrama@gmail.com for more information.