NOISES OFF Opens at JPAS This Month

The comedy Noises Off is the next Jefferson Performing Arts Society production onstage at Jefferson Performing Arts Center, featuring a cast of nine local performers directed by Harold Heno. Called “the funniest farce ever written”, it will run for five performances only from April 12 through 21 as part of JPAS’s 46th season.  

Noises Off (1982) is a Tony-nominated play by British playwright Michael Frayn that is a staple of professional theaters on both sides of the Atlantic. It became a popular movie directed by Peter Bogdanovich in 1992, featuring Michael Caine and Carol Burnett. This play within a play is filled with slapstick antics, including plenty of slamming doors, fallen trousers, and lost sardines. The plot involves a group of British actors rehearsing a show called Nothing On which is far from ready for opening night. Offstage intrigue and drama between the actors add to the show’s fast-paced hilarity, mischief, and mayhem.

Director Harold Heno graduated with his MFA in Directing from the University of New Orleans and spent three years as the resident designer/technical director at Le Petit Theatre before being brought to Campbell University in North Carolina to build their theatre major program. After 5 years in NC, he and his family moved to NYC where he spent 19 years in educational and professional theatre, directing and producing. He and his wife returned to New Orleans during the COVID pandemic. Says Heno of Noises Off: “To this day, it’s still the funniest show I have ever seen or directed, and I am thrilled to share it with another audience!”

Cast

Nancy White as  DOTTY OTLEY

Elizabeth McCoy as BROOKE ASHTON

Mary Lee Jacobs as BELINDA BLAIR

Bailey Gabrish as POPPY NORTON TAYLOR

Benjamin Clement as LLOYD DALLAS

Johnathan Mares as GARRY LEJEUNE

Leon Contavesprie as FREDERICK FELLOWES

David Jacobs as SELSDON MOWBRAY