playbill vip

It is so great to finally be back on the stage at the OPA Auditorium! The last 2 years have been very challenging for all of us. Our drama students started 2020 preparing for a musical they would never get to perform (RIP Seussical!) and then spent the following school year rehearsing and performing plays and musicals over zoom! While we are so happy to be back in person, putting on this show was definitely not easy. We’ve dealt with so many obstacles, from the many restrictions we had to the uncertainty of whether we could have a live audience, or even a show at all. We are all so thrilled that we could be here together and once again experience the joy of live theater!

You may be familiar with the world of the “certain school of magic.” Perhaps you’ve read about it in books or seen it in films. We are here tonight to show you a part of that world you may not be familiar with...that of the least popular house at the school: Puffs! The people who created this show were not satisfied with the Puffs being relegated to side characters in the world of a certain “boy who lived.” In this play we get to know these underrepresented students and see their contributions to the events of those books. Puffs reminds us of the importance of finding our own story and not letting our story be defined by others. As the Headmaster says in Act II, "It is very easy to feel like you're only a secondary character in someone else's grand story. That does not mean, however, there isn't another story out there that's all about you. The one where you're the most important person in the world. The hero. We're all important, Wayne. And we're all unimportant. We're all heroes in some way. To someone."

This play has the task of summarizing 7 years of events into just 110ish minutes. In order to accomplish all that, things move rather quickly. Many of the cast members will be playing multiple roles, which means costume changes that may just be a set of glasses here, or a hat there, an accent change, or a cape swished to the back. We hope you can allow yourself to suspend your disbelief tonight and get swept up in our fast paced adventure! 

What you see on the stage tonight could not have been possible without the efforts, professionalism, and cooperation of a talented cast and crew who gave up so much of their time to make this show a success. I know that their experience here will be invaluable in their future theatrical endeavors, and I thank them from the bottom of my heart. I offer my most sincere gratitude to the talented faculty whose hard work and dedication will not go unnoticed. I would also like to extend a note of appreciation to the administration of the Orange School District and the members of the Orange Board of Education. Thank you for continuing to support the performing arts in Orange!

Now get yourself SORTED and enjoy the show!

Dana Grenell