Between Mar.10-12, freshman and sophomore students performed the production of Puffs at the McGee theater. Set in the Harry Potter universe, Puffs features several young wizards attending seven years of magic school. Three students embark on great adventures and attempt to survive magic with the assistance of the Puffs, a group of wizards.

The cast began rehearsing mid-January, getting only one day off each week. Sophia Burnell who was the assistant choreographer and also the actress of Xavia, mentioned how the preparation started with the staging process.

“I got to make a few of the dances and help in that rehearsal process. We started blocking and learning all the dances, running it over and over, and we had to memorize the show by a certain date,” said Burnell.

The next step in the rehearsal process was dress and tech rehearsal, where actors remained at school until 8 p.m. The technical aspects including light and sound were critical, and the sorting of the costumes and makeups were also essential to running the show.

A few weeks before dress and tech rehearsal, the mask mandate got lifted, which made it easier for actors to use their facial expressions.

“We got to finally start rehearsing without masks on which was really different because it’s been two years of acting with only half of our faces,” said Burnell. “It was really nice, especially to do the actual show and get photos without masks on, and it made it funnier because it’s a comedy.”

Sophomore Grace Weir, who played the part of Susie Bones, explained how the cast worked a lot with the character development of their roles.

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“We did this exercise where you’d walk around as your character but look at the posture and how your character would talk, and what they would do with their hands,” said Weir.

Alex Barry, who played the part of Oliver, emphasized how the show was never very stressful despite the short rehearsal process.

“The first show was the one with some nerves, the second show was super fun, and the third one was when it started to hit that it was really going to be over. So the three shows really weren’t too bad. There were many times when I wished we had more,” said Barry.

With ongoing laughter from the audience, lots of humorous comments were made throughout the course of this production.

“When you rehearse it so many times with no audience, the jokes feel stupid and you feel like nothing is funny, so the final product is better than any of us could have ever imagined,” said Burnell.

Along with the constant laughter, Barry mentioned how the audience seemed to be very involved in particular scenes.

“My favorite scene was in Year 4, in the middle of the second task and we’re watching the competitors in the lake,” said Barry. “That scene was always super funny to me because we just stared at the audience for a solid 2 minutes and it was great to see their reactions and to get to interact with them.”

Many of the cast members brought up how all the time spent with one another in the cast led to an amazing community.

“Being with everyone, especially during the last few weeks when we were there for a very long time, was tedious, but I really got to form a good relationship with everyone,” said Weir.