Student-Directed Drama Coming To Ramsey

Ramsey High School’s Drama Workshop class presents Pure as the Driven Snow, a melodrama that takes the classic good versus evil and makes it a hilarious comedy. The student-directed comedy will take place in the RHS Cafeteria on October 24, 25, and 26 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $10 each and are available at the door on the nights of performance. For further information please call 201-785-2300 ext. 21500.

The play, written by Paul Loomis in a good fashioned melodramatic format, focuses on multiple relationships, from the simple bond of a mother and daughter, to the more complicated love relationship of upper class boy falling for a working girl, all under the looming cloud of a dastardly evil villain. Mortimer Frothingham, the same nefarious villain, tries to take down our hero, Leander Longfellow, through many humorous puns and sneaky actions, all for the hand of Miss Purity Dean, our heroine.

As the play goes on, Mr. and Mrs. Jonathan Logan bicker over the ‘runnins’ of the Uland Inn, even though Mrs. Logan wears the pants in the family! The subplot is just as funny, with characters such as E.Z. Pickens talking about his infamous pickle factory and its “major” success as he flirts with Alison Hewlitt, the local daughter of high “fallutin’ “society Mrs. Hewlitt. And then there is the mysterious baby, found in the barn on a stormy night. Whose baby is it, how did it get there, and what will become of it?   

Student directors Alex Albanese and Kristina Walz direct this play in an “In-the-round” format, to be performed in the school cafeteria. This type of performance is a different performance experience for the actors and the audience alike, a much more personal format where the audience and the actors can see and react to each other closely.

Kristina Walz aids in directing this hilarious production as she did for last year’s play of It Runs in the Family. Kristina has been an extremely important member of the Drama Club at Ramsey High School. Fellow student director and vice president of the drama club, Alex Albanese, has been in numerous productions at RHS, in both Drama Workshop and RHS Drama Club productions and is an active participant in various after school activities. 

Workshop Class students participating in the play are Talia Cantor, who portrays the sweet and innocent heroine Purity Dean, with  Nicholas Venturini playing Leander Longfellow, the stalwart hero of the story. The conniving villain Mortimer Frothingham is played by Jimmy McWilliams. Eileen O’Connor is the snobby upper crust Mrs. Ethelinda Hewlitt, Caity McHale plays her naïve daughter Allison, and Bryan Jahnke plays the smitten pickle manufacturer E.Z. Pickens. 

Others in the cast include Larissa Rosa and Tommy Barbara as the much put-upon innkeepers, Greg Argenio as Mortimer’s not too bright accomplice, and Alex Rockefeller is Imogene Pickens, who continually plots to steal Leander’s love from Purity. Ciara Bosh plays Mrs. Faith Hogue, a traveller with mysterious ties to Purity, Lily Poruks portrays Nellie Morris, who arrives just in time to thwart Mortimer’s plans, and Grace Turso is Letty Barber, who arrives bringing secrets of her own. 

The above was submitted by Ramsey High School.