Playful comedy to be staged at Geneva High School

Geneva High School students have been hard at work polishing their performances and getting the stage set for "The Love of Three Oranges," a play by Hillary DePiano.

The comedy opens on Friday, Nov, 7 and runs through Sunday, Nov. 9. Performances are at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2:30 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $7, $5 for students and can be purchased at the door.

The script is based on a comedy of the same name written in 1761 by Italian playwright Carlo Gozzi, who loosely based this work on an old fairy tale, "The Three Citrons."

The performance comes together under the direction of Nicolette Pollack, who teaches English and special education at GHS. When asked how she chose this play for the 2014 fall production, she says, "As a teen, I auditioned for 'The Love of Three Oranges,' but the play was never brought to production. I secretly longed for the play to come to life with me in it, but as director, it is even more than I could have imagined. What a ride!"

The play is filled with humor and plenty of "fourth wall breaking."

Brandon Nickelson, portraying Leandro, says the play has "classic fairy tale elements but it's updated with comedy for more modern audiences." Fellow thespian Marc Belon, playing the Mute Bumpkin and understudy for Prince Tartaglia, said, "When I read the play, it seemed OK, but then when you get to act it out with all the physical comedy, it's really, really funny."

"Every character has a least one comedic one-liner and the jokes are interspersed throughout the action of the entire play," Pollack said. "I was so fortunate to land the perfect actor for each and every role. It has been so much fun watching these characters come to life through the actors."

In "The Love of Three Oranges," Prince Tartaglia's life is filled with misery until an evil witch and her equally evil henchmen curse him to search for three giant oranges. But this quest proves more fruitful than anyone could have imagined as a once-lonely prince discovers love, friendship and laughter when he encounters wizards, monarchs and a wild narrator who isn't sure how far removed from the story he really is.

Pollack was involved in theater at Batavia High School and remembers one of her favorite roles being Alice Kinnian in "Flowers for Algernon." She was president of the Theatre Club at Benedictine University, where she performed and directed. She continues to be active in local community theater, most recently portraying Nurse Kelly in "Harvey" and Katrina Van Tassel in "Sleepy Hollow" at the Albright Theatre in Batavia.

"The Love of Three Oranges" is appropriate for all ages.

For more information, visitgeneva304.org/genevahighschool_home.aspx/.

Geneva High School is at 416 McKinley Ave.