Event Article

"It's a good cast. The first read through of the play went very well," director Jim Henderson said of the newly chosen cast for ''The Real Inspector Hound." The farce by Tom Stoppard will be the Fullerton College Theater Department's first major production of the year.

Last week's auditions drew approximately 50 hopefuls for the five male and three female parts in the play.

"We try to select plays which will serve an educational purpose for our students," Henderson continued.

"Stoppard's play certainly fits that bill. It is loaded with clever language and situations which should be stimulating for all ages.

"This looking-glass comedy of suspense and intrigues is really a play within a play," explained Henderson. "Two drama critics, Moon and Birdboot (Michael Kane and Joe Guzman, respectively), go to a theater to see a new thriller. Stoppard subtly involves these professional observers in the play with results that prove surprisingly serious for both."

The Agatha Christie-type thriller that is being viewed by Moon and Birdboot is set in the "Strangely inaccessible" residence of Lady Cynthia Muldoon (Wanda Kleist), and involves each of her house guests in the solving of the murder mystery. Who is the body (John Zigler), and why was he murdered? Police Inspector Hound (Ronald Heape) arrives to interrogate Muldoon and her guests. Is the killer Felicity Cunningham (Hattie Totten), wheelchair-ridden Magnus (Jeff Armaugh), the maid Mrs Drudge (Julie McAuley) or the uninvited Simon Gascoyne (Michael O'Hearn)? How do the critics (Kane and Guzman) become involved?

Titillated? Performance dates are Jan. 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13, curtain at 8 p.m.