Guess who’ll be at ‘Dinner’

From fake penguins to prop cockroaches, Laguna Beach High School is pulling out all the stops in the fall production of “The Man Who Came to Dinner.”

The classic farce by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart tells the story of a supercilious radio lecturer in the 1930s, Sheridan Whiteside, who allegedly breaks his hip while visiting the house of a prim Ohio family. He threatens to sue and demands to spend his convalescence in their home.

In so doing, he succeeds in pestering the family to the breaking point.

“The kids were rolling the first time we read it,” co-director and drama teacher Mark Dressler said.

“We often find ourselves doing Kaufman and Hart plays because of the number of characters,” he added. “Just when you think you’re finished meeting all the characters, there’s more.”

Kaufman and Hart are also known for creating outlandish personalities. “It provides a lot of character study for the students,” Dressler said.

The school has also staged the pair’s “You Can’t Take It With You” in recent years.

Looking like a scene straight out of “Guys and Dolls,” a group of students in skinny ties, suspenders and pith helmets sprawled in a hallway playing Uno while they waited to go onstage at Tuesday’s dress rehearsal.

Dressler’s son Max, the butler in the play, performed duties backstage like that of his character, arranging set pieces, propping open doors and cleaning.

“I’m really proud of the way the kids pulled it off,” Dressler said.

Typically, theater giants like Nathan Lane take the role of Whiteside, but for the high school production, Kyle Naughton was cast.

Pokerfaced, he described the rehearsal process as “long, tedious and grueling,” saying that playing the role is “like an ascent of Everest.”

A central subplot is the curious relationship between Whiteside and his secretary Maggie, played by Celena Del Pizzio-Howell.

“It’s about love, but a different kind of love,” Dressler said.

When Maggie finds true, romantic love and threatens to leave Whiteside’s service, all bets are off as to what happens next.

A key visual component of the play is a crate of penguins, one of many exotic holiday gifts Whiteside is given by his posh friends throughout the show.

“It’s so fake that it’s funny,” Dressler said. They put an actor in the canvas crate, with plush-toy penguins that she will make “jump,” and added penguin sound effects. She will thump against the canvas walls of the container to create a kinetic effect.

Another gift, a terrarium of cockroaches, was constructed by a parent; it comes to life with fake cockroaches on springs and a sped-up sound effect track of a cocktail party, which produces an “Alvin and the Chipmunks”-type result.

Dressler added that the penguins have taken on a life of their own in the minds of several Thurston Middle School students.

Several of Dressler’s drama students at Thurston have been cast in the play’s choir; others work on the crew.

“They’re so excited to work with the big kids,” Dressler said.

Freshman Morea Arthur was thrilled to be in her first high school production. “Everyone’s really nice,” she said of the cast.