MTPA’s fall play this year is “Murder On the Orient Express.” Hercule Poirot, the world famous detective, is out to solve the murder of fellow passenger, Samuel Ratchett, who was murdered in his train compartment while aboard the Orient Express.
I had the opportunity to go swing by a rehearsal to interview this amazing cast. Not only did I get to interview them, I was also able to see how well the cast worked together and how much effort they are putting into this show.
“These kids are so incredible,” said assistant director Mrs. Esposito. “Everyone just comes together and helps each other out.”
Tim Cruz: Hercule Poirot
Grade: Senior
Favorite part of being in MTPA: “I think it’s just the opportunity to express yourself in a different way than you would in your day to day life… you’re playing a character but you also get to put a bit of a personal note to it— that’s the nice thing about acting. It’s not you, you’re just playing a part.”
Advice for auditioning in the future: “Get out there. You have to try. You aren’t going to be perfect at it… no one is when you first start out, but you’re not going to improve if you don’t start. I know it’s scary, it’s always going to be a scary thing no matter how many shows you do… but you just have to start.”
Abe Wolfe: Constantine Bouc
Grade: Sophomore
Favorite part of being in MTPA: “I like the community. You get really close, especially with a10 person cast, so you really get to know everyone and you’re forced to be around them so you learn to get along and you have fun moments.”
Advice for auditioning in the future: “Don’t be afraid of messing up because even if you do, I promise you nobody is looking at you that hard. I know you’re the main character in your own show, but you’ll recover.”
Maddie Lawrie: Mary Debenham
Grade: Junior
Favorite part of being in MTPA: “The community and the friendships that I’ve made.”
Advice for auditioning in the future: “Confidence is key.”
Devin Grosh: Hector MacQueen
Grade: Junior
Favorite part of being in MTPA: “All the people are very nice, and everyone in the cast is really awesome and cool to be around.”
Advice for auditioning in the future: “This is actually my first time in an MTPA production so I don’t have a lot of experience, but if there’s one thing I would say, it’s literally just to do it. If you want to audition just do it. You’re going to make mistakes and everything, but just make those mistakes and you’ll learn from them. I learned a lot already and this is my first year.”
Patrick McCarthy: Michel the Conductor / Head Waiter
Grade: Freshman
Favorite part of being in MTPA: “My favorite part has definitely been meeting all these people that I’ve met through the play and just the environment in general.”
Advice for auditioning in the future: “Just to try everything. Even if you don’t think you’re going to like it, because you might enjoy it and if not, it might give you more opportunities to do things you will enjoy.”
Ella Suydam: Princess Dragomiroff
Grade: Senior
Favorite part of being in MTPA: “I just really like the community. I like the friendships that I’ve made and how close everybody becomes, it just really makes my heart full.”
Advice for auditioning in the future: “I would just say to have a positive attitude because it doesn’t matter if you’re the worst dancer… They can teach you how to dance, but they can’t teach you how to smile and have a good attitude… Just make sure you’re smiling and have a positive attitude because that’s the people the audience wants to see on stage— the happy people and the people that are having a good time.”
Alex Othmer: Greta Ohlsson
Grade: Junior
Favorite part of being in MTPA: “Tech week during shows. I love seeing all the elements come together and getting the lighting and it all moving and it really becomes a show, also with the costumes so I just love that.”
Advice for auditioning in the future: “I would say, watch a recording of the show that you are auditioning for, and you need to notice the inflections and how they say certain things. You also need to flesh out your character and project [your voice].”
Maya Hartz: Countess Andrenyi
Grade: Senior
Favorite part of being in MTPA: “I think my favorite part— along with a lot of the other people I’m assuming you’ll talk to— is the community, obviously we are all like a family here. But outside of that, it gives us a sense of purpose outside of academics. A lot of your year can be really stressful, so being able to just act is just a really nice break from the general structured activities, so it’s just a really nice space where you can explore your artistic side, which is also great.”
Advice for auditioning in the future: “I would absolutely say go for it. You will never know what happens until you try out, so you might as well give it a shot. This is the most welcoming group of people you could ever ask for so if you just want to get into it a little bit in any form, and there’s a lot of things that you could do for any skill set and a lot of it is really beginner friendly, so you should really just try to get involved and give it a shot.”
Maggie Ainslie: Helen Hubbard
Grade: Junior
Favorite part of being in MTPA: “How welcoming it is and just how everyone is not afraid to let their creative juices flow and kind of go off of each other and have fun without making it weird or judgmental.”
Advice for auditioning in the future: “I would say be prepared. The biggest thing you could do for yourself is be prepared. It’s also easy to get in your head about these kinds of things but if you just trust your gut and do what you would do if you were just practicing in your bedroom alone, no one is really taking it as seriously as you think they are, so just relax and have fun.”
RJ Scacalossi: Colonel Arbuthnot / Samuel Ratchett
Grade: Senior
Favorite part of being in MTPA: “Definitely the people. The first time I joined MTPA, I felt like everything clicked so well and it was just such an eye opening experience. I just thought that everyone seemed so connected, and even with things like tech week being very stressful, we can all come together.”
Advice for auditioning in the future: “My freshman year I was petrified. I wanted to [audition], but I was just full of stage fright and it took another person to just encourage me the whole year to just do it and so my sophomore year I did it. So really my advice is to just get yourself up and put yourself in the heat of the audition, and also realize that it’s not that serious and it’s literally just a school show. I also think if you were able to just put yourself out there and audition, it shows who you are as a person and your character, and it’s nothing but a beneficial experience.”
Come see “Murder on the Orient Express” on Nov. 20-23. There will be three shows that all start at 7 p.m. It is a murder mystery you will not be able to forget.
