Three Musketeers Swashbuckles Into Chesterfield

When Alexandre Dumas' sensational novel "The Three Musketeers" premiered on the stage in England, it received massive critical praise. Ever since, it has been swashing and buckling across America's stages, and now it bursts onto the stage at .

The flamboyant story centers on D'Artagnan, a young Gascon who travels to Paris where he runs afoul of three of the king's Musketeers—Athos, Porthos and Aramis—who each challenge him to a duel. When the Cardinal's guards attack the four, they band together to defeat their foes and thereafter live by the motto, "All for one, one for all."

The show is fast-paced, witty and intense, and it presents challenges even for seasoned professionals, much more so for a high-school production.

"Technically, the show is very involved," Judi Greene, theatre teacher and director, said. "The lighting is intricate, there's a bridge up in the air, and we even had a stunt expert come in to stage the sword fighting. They even have to dance."

Greene said she has always chosen plays that present a vast array of theatre styles so by the time the students move on to college they are well rounded.

"I try to alternate each year between comedy and tragedy, Shakespeare or modern, so that after four years the students have had a good diversity of genres," Greene said. "I want them to have a little experience before they graduate."

The actors are getting experience by the horse-drawn cartload, and they have met the challenges head on with an aplomb that would satisfy any director.

"Definitely the sword fighting has been challenging," senior Matt Perry said.

"There's a certain amount of dramatic scenes too," senior James Greene added.

"I was used to doing comedy, but with more dramatic scenes I had to catch myself...get in the moment," Perry said.

But it hasn't been all work and no play. Choreographing sword-fighting scenes can be plain fun.

"We had worked with Todd (stunt expert) before," senior Ryan Martin said.

"But we had small roles then," Austin Jones, senior, said. "But this...this was lots of sword fighting."

With a weekend of performances of "The Three Musketeers" under their large buckled belts, all agree the show is a success and they're looking forward to their final performances Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

"It's going really good," Perry said. "The energy in the show last Friday and Saturday was really good. I could feel the energy."

Jones agreed. "They weren't huge audiences but they were really into it. Once we got responses, we could really get into it. They were entertained."

"I could even hear gasps from the audience," Greene said.

The Three Musketeers continues this weekend at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday at Marquette High School.

Editor's note: Due to privacy regulations, we were unable to print the students' names in the photo captions.