The Patriot Players recently performed their play, Puffs, to rave audience reviews. “The play was good, it was very funny and I had a good laugh,” junior Bryon Haugabook said.

The show premiered on Nov. 11-12 at 7 p.m. and with other shows on Nov. 13-14 at 2 p.m. The school website promoted the show by asking, “Have you ever wondered what life was like at a certain school of magic for a non-hero? This magical production follows seven increasingly eventful years of wizard, Wayne Hopkins, as he and his underdog friends try to find ways to be heroes in a world where only one boy seems to get the credit–you know, the one with the lightening shaped scar.”

The cast and crew had been working hard getting ready for the first show. “Rehearsal was really fun. The first thing we did over the course of many weeks was read through the script scene by scene, and go over basic blocking (which is the general idea of where you’re going to stand in a scene) and then once we got through the script we started over again, rerunning through specific scenes each practice and getting more comfortable with the blocking and lines. Eventually we had to be off-book (knowing our lines by heart) and then we tried to stumble through the scenes a bit faster, to smooth it out and make it less choppy,” junior Catie Russ said.

Going on stage and performing in front of friends and family isn’t easy and can be  nerve-racking. “Personally, I had done it before so I was totally OK, but some people backstage were anxious. Though they did an amazing job of going out on stage and performing despite their anxieties,” junior Drew Sill said. 

The cast and crew were also happy to be able to do the play in person instead of through Zoom. “After the spring show was cancelled in 2020, and the interesting amalgamation of videos we had to send in for our video-zoom-production last year, it was just really nice to be back on a real stage with real props, real people, and a real audience,” Russ said. 

There were some amazing parts during the play with laughs from the audience. “This may be biased, but towards the end when Oliver comes out on stage with the protractor is very fun. The applause is nice too,” Sill said. 

The actors said they felt like the crew got closer this year compared to other years. “It wasn’t a huge cast and crew for this show, so I think we all got to know each other better and everyone was really nice and fun to be around,” Russ said. 

As the Patriot Players prepare for the next play, fans may wonder what it will be like. “I’m looking forward to the chance to participate in my first musical at Wootton. For all the juniors, sophomores and freshmen, we’ve never had the opportunity to be in a spring musical before because of covid so it’ll be fun,” Russ said.