Black Maskers is ending the school year strong, bringing its spring production, the thrilling mystery “Murder on the Orient Express”, to the stage. The club raced against a tight schedule to perfect every moment of this suspenseful play. The show’s debut on March 22 was followed by back-to-back performances on March 23 and the finale on March 28.
The classic “Murder on the Orient Express” follows the story of detective Hercule Poirot (Noah Lechheb), who finds American businessman Samuel Ratchett (Xander Buehler) lying dead in his compartment of the luxury train. As Poirot investigates with the help of his friend, Monsieur Bouc (Cory Breychak), he questions a diverse group of passengers: from Britain, a young governess named Mary Debenham (Valerie Badger) and her close friend Colonel Arbuthnot (Alexander Opalski); elderly Russian Princess Dragomiroff (Eliza Petrova); Countess Andrenyi (Lilliana Katz-Hollander); the dramatic Mrs. Hubbard (Fadekemi Laniyonu); Ratchett’s secretary, Hector MacQueen; and Greta Olsson (Jaymie Donohue), a Swedish missionary. Poirot unravels a complex web of deception, revealing a conspiracy that ties the passengers to a past crime—and a carefully orchestrated act of justice.
Preparation for the play began in late February, leaving the cast and crew with under a month to pull everything together and bring the production to life.
Although the entire story takes place in one location, the fast-approaching deadline was also a challenge for the teams who designed the set.
“The time constraint was challenging. We had, like, two weeks to get it all done before tech week,” junior Ellie Futrovsky, a chief on set decoration said. Nevertheless, the set came together without missing a single detail. “I’m super proud of the set overall, especially its gold accents,” Futrovsky added.
“Murder on the Orient Express” takes place in the 1930s, a significant time for fashion. Black Maskers’ makeup crew strove to make sure every character’s look was set for the era, even if it meant using gallons of hair gel. “I would say the biggest challenge we had was making sure the hair was historically accurate and also making sure it works on stage,” senior and chief on makeup crew Natalie Marmelstein said.
During this time period, most women had short hair. For actresses with longer hair, makeup crew utilized a piece of ribbon tied around the head to create the illusion of an appropriate look. “My two favorite looks of the show would definitely be the finger waves and [Mary Debenham’s] faux bob,” Marmelstein said.
Actors and actresses worked tirelessly to meet the fast approaching deadline, rehearsing multiple days each week to perfect their parts. Each character was entirely different from the next– their thick European accents included. “The biggest challenge was definitely the line memorization. In all honesty, I didn’t get them down until the last night of tech [week],” senior and actor Noah Lechheb said.
“Learning all the blocking for this show was the most difficult part,” actress and senior Valerie Badger said. The scenes of Murder on the Orient Express are intense, as the characters scramble to reveal the murderer before they strike again. Each movement and location of a person is intentional, meant to convey the story and emotions of a scene as realistically as possible.
The hard work paid off by the time show night came around. “I really liked hanging out with the cast members. The dynamic was really nice which reflected onstage with interactions and the performance overall,” Badger said.
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