SHAUNA ONOFREY
Photo by Elizabeth Bean
The cast of “Noises Off” rehearses for upcoming performances. Back row, left to right: Stephen Pters, Evan Bernstein, Paul Campbell and Patrick O’Hanlon. Front row, left to right: Molly Kimmerling, Janelle Mills, Barbara Douglass, Greg Maraio and Courtney Bennet.
The Footlight Club, America’s oldest community theatre, will show Michael Frayn’s farce “Noises Off,” directed by Thomas Martin and produced by Christopher Nadeau and Kristin MacDougall, beginning this month. Performances at Eliot Hall at 7A Eliot St. near the Monument will be on Sept. 19, 20, 26 and 27 and Oct. 3 and 4 at 8 p.m.
This play-within-a-play ia about faded TV starlet Dotty Otley’s production of the farce “Nothing On.” With the aid of the equally washed-up director Lloyd Dallas, Dotty has assembled a motley crew of second-rate actors for what is meant to be her brilliant last hurrah. As the run of the show begins, it turns out that the action backstage is even more uproarious than the play itself. As the fighting among the cast members becomes more twisted, everything ‘‘on stage’’ begins to unravel.
Nestled in a residential area near Jamaica Pond, The Footlight Club—America’s oldest community theatre—has performed every year since 1877. This program is supported in part by a grant from the Boston Cultural Council, a local agency funded by the Massachusetts Cultural Council and administrated by the Mayor’s Office of Arts, Tourism and Special Events. For tickets or more information, see www.footlight.org or call 524-3200.
The writer is the publicity director of The Footlight Club.