"Wait Until Dark" begins production

Dylan Scott

Reporter

"Wait Until Dark," by Frederick Knott, is the first play to be performed by the MUW Theatre Department this fall.

"Wait Until Dark" is a thriller about a con man's search for a mysterious doll that leads him to a game of cat-and-mouse with the blind wife of a man who has the doll. This is the first suspenseful thriller that the department will be performing.

Lee Crouse, director of the play, says that he hopes the audience leaves the performance every night shocked at the outcome of the play's events.

"This play is challenging, because everything has to be done exactly as it's written. Some plays leave a lot of room for interpretation. This has to have everything in place or it won't make sense. If there are any clues missing, you lose track of the situation," said Crouse.

Karen Thead, a senior at The W, will be helping Crouse with the play as assistant director. This will be her eighth production with the MUW Theatre Department, but it will be the first show in which she is only doing technical work. Thead said she enjoyed the time she spent as an assistant director with a community theater in Starkville and wanted more experience in that position.

Thead said that people who like scares or thrillers will like "Wait Until Dark."

"It has a very good plot. You really feel and care about the characters. It's just well-written, well-done," said Thead.

Graham Young, a senior at The W, plays con man, Roat, in the production. This will be his fourth production with the department. He said he is looking forward to doing a more modern play with a very different feel to it. 

"There's a lot of really great twists. There is gonna be some very, very interesting scenes that we're gonna do, especially at the end. The ending scene is probably one of the coolest scenes that I'm gonna be able to do, at any point," said Young.

Young said that most plays that he has been in have a larger cast than this one, but he liked having more development with the characters. 

Allison C. Jones, a junior at The W, will also be taking the stage by playing Susy, the blind wife. Jones said she is excited to be part of a more dramatic and dark theater production, because she hasn't been able to do one in recent years.

"I'm mostly worried about playing a blind woman, because I don't get to wear sunglasses on stage, so I literally have to make sure I'm not making contact with everybody else, which is the main thing you're supposed to do in acting," Jones said.

This dark and suspenseful thriller has many elements to it that make it a play for all to enjoy. The play will begin its run on Nov. 5 and will continue through Nov. 7. Tickets are $5 for college students with ID and $10 for general admission.