Choreography is not just for the big tap dance numbers in the lavish musicals. It also plays an important part in a farce with a six-person cast.
“The rehearsal we do on the first Saturday is the fight choreography,” said Kurt Naebig, who is directing the Buffalo Theatre Ensemble’s production of “Don’t Dress for Dinner.”
“But it is not to stage fights. It is to do the slaps in the show; people jumping on each other; people pulled in and out of doorways; people spraying spritzer in the face. We want to build to those big moments, so we are regularly rehearsing the ‘fights’ outside the context of the play. So if someone grabs someone’s throat in the course of the play, they are not in danger.”
“Don’t Dress for Dinner” will be presented by the Buffalo Theatre Ensemble at 8 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays (8:30 p.m. Sept. 17 and Sept. 30) and at 3 p.m. Sundays through Oct. 9 in the Playhouse Theatre of the McAninch Arts Center at College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn. The production opened Thursday.
“Don’t Dress for Dinner,” by French playwright Marc Camoletti and adapted by Robin Hawdon, centers on Bernard (played by Brad Walker), who is planning a weekend with his mistress, and has arranged for a cook to prepare a gourmet meal.
His wife, Jacqueline (played by Connie Canaday Howard), is away at her mother’s house, and Bernard has invited his best friend, Robert (played by Robert Jordan Bailey), to help provide an alibi. Thinking that the plan is foolproof, Bernard does not realize that his best friend is also his wife’s secret lover. In addition, the cook is mistaken for the mistress, the mistress is unable to cook and an evening of confusion ensues.
Naebig said that different actors approach a farce in different ways.
“Some might play it too broad, and it needs to be based in truth even though it’s an absurd situation,” he said. “Others might come in and work from the base of truth, and that is logical and interesting, but we have to make it more physical. All the cast members doing this show have done farces before. There needs to be an understanding of the timing; how to move bodies through space so that it’s funny.”
Naebig has directed various farces over the years and enjoys the process.
“I love farces,” he said. “The rehearsal period is just a blast. We are laughing all night.”
And, according to Naebig, the show has no hidden meanings.
“It is just a silly, fun, good time,” the director said. “You will not walk away like you have just seen ‘Death of a Salesman,’ but you will laugh hysterically. You will feel great when you leave the theater.”
Randall G. Mielke is a freelance writer.
“Don’t Dress for Dinner”
When: Sept. 8-Oct. 9
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Where: McAninch Arts Center, 425 Fawell Blvd., Glen Ellyn
Tickets: $35
Information: 630-942-4000 or www.atthemac.org