“Room Service” a farce about producing a play and the lengths that some will go to see it done, is the latest production by the Cerritos College drama department.
A special dress rehearsal performance was put on last Thursday in the Burnight Theatre.
Other performances will take place this Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday in the Burnight Theatre. Thursday through Saturday’s performance will begin at 8 p.m. and Sunday’s at 2 p.m.
Tickets are $10 for general admission. Students with I.D. and seniors pay $7.50.
Robin Huber, the director and also a faculty member at Cerritos College, regards it as a good way for people in drama to get experience for how show business really works.
Huber says, “Putting on a production is always hectic, but it’s good experience for the actors. Huber continues, “A few of them want to act for a living, so this will let them know what to expect.”
Huber has long experience with play production. He has directed a dozen plays at Cerritos College, including “Candide”, “Boy’s Life”, and “Butterfingers Angel”. This is his first play in two years and he said he has missed directing.
The players on the other hand, are relative amateurs, but that doesn’t dampen their enthusiasm for acting.
“I’m just hoping the audience likes it!” confesses Yezmin Bernal, who plays Hilda Manney. “I’m just doing this for fun, so either way I’ll enjoy myself.”
Chris Alvarado who wants to act professionally, however, takes it more seriously.
“This is what I want to do. When I step on stage, it’s like I become someone else. You have no idea what it’s like unless you do it. Besides, it’s cheaper than therapy.”
Nick Laris, who portrays a playwriter Leo Davis, has his own method for preparing for going onstage, he does wind sprints backstage before going on.
“It’s a great stress reliever. It’s a good way to psyche yourself up. Once you’re out there, focus is important.”
The play is set in New York during the late 1930’s. It features the misadventures of three producers trying to get a play produced, despite being heavily in debt and being on the verge of being kicked out of their hotel for not paying their bill. With a suspicious hotel owner breathing down their necks and funding alternately offered and snatched away, they have to use their wiles to present a play that they are sure will be a hit, if they can only get the public to see it in the first place.
The three leads, Alverado, Dave Wrathall, and Tony Paniagua all portray their characters with the right amount of frustration and desperation that men in their shoes would feel. The supporting character Frank Bellejos, does the very embodiment of a southern politician in a brief role, Jennifer Tunulak as a flustered potential backer, and Jon Butcher as the constantly exasperated hotel owner, make it a worthwhile way to spend an evening.
