March 25, 2024 – Chaos abounds when Theatre Santa Fe presents “Noises Off!,” Michael Frayn’s Tony-nominated comedy, on two Friday and Saturday nights, April 19-20 and April 26-27, 2024, in the Jackson N. Sasser Fine Arts Hall at the Northwest Campus of Santa Fe College (SF). The campus is located at 3000 NW 83rd Street, Gainesville.
Tickets are $15 for adults; $9 for seniors, students, military service members and children 12 and under; and free for SF students, faculty, and staff with college ID cards. Tickets are available from the Fine Arts Hall box office at 352-395-4181 or online from Showpass at showpass.com/noises-off.
“This play has been called ‘a master class in farce’ and is now recognized as a classic comedy,” said SF Theatre Professor Russell Schultz, who is directing the student cast. “’Noises Off!’ is a theatrical tour de force that features a manic group of second-rate actors racing against the clock to open a play called ‘Nothing On.’ The audience will watch the slow demise of ‘Nothing On’ and what’s left of the actors’ reputations.” The phrase “noises off” refers to a stage direction for offstage sounds.
In addition to the nine actors, students in SF’s Associate in Science (A.S.) degree program in Theatre and Entertainment Technology are working behind the scenes in stage management, assisting the director, costuming, and set construction. The set is built in three units so the audience can see what is happening both onstage and backstage in the play “Nothing On.”
“This is one of the best casts I’ve ever worked with!” Schultz exclaimed. “We’ve been rehearsing since January to get the timing down, and the students are making it look easy to run up and down a two-story set the whole time. This play only works for a live audience and it’s really fun to watch farce that’s done this well.”
“Noises Off!” premiered at the Lyric Theatre in London in 1982 and has since been produced worldwide, including on Broadway, at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre in Australia, and in numerous professional theatre companies and community theatres. The 2001 Broadway production with Patti LuPone and Peter Gallagher was nominated for a Tony and Drama Desk Award as Best Revival of a Play.
“Noises Off!” is organized and sponsored by the Santa Fe College Fine Arts and Entertainment Technology Department.
For more information about the play, call Russell Schultz at 352-395-5120. For ticket information, call the SF Box Office at 352-395-4181.