With the cold weather setting in, the Millard West drama department has begun working on their late fall play, the rather dark and mysterious yet also comedic tale, “Clue.” With the audition process passing by quickly, the cast and crew get ready to take on this early staged story.

The actors study the boasting personalities of all the characters in the play, setting goals for characters they think they would fit the best. Every character in the play is so different, almost opposites of each other. Though not always getting the role that they had in mind in the beginning, they still are prepared and open to facing a challenge on the stage. Many of the cast members took inspiration on how they would portray their characters from watching various other performances and renditions. Directors and theater tech class teacher Brooke Phillips cast many of her productions carefully to try and broaden the horizons of her actors.

“When I read the sides and walked into auditions, the main thought running through my head was ‘I would love to be Professor Plum,” senior Kaden Frazier said. “I thought that being able to play this suave character onstage would be a fun opportunity to broaden my horizons.”

“Clue” (1985) is known as the story of six extremely different characters, all invited to a mansion. They later find out that their so-called “host” is holding large amounts of blackmail they’ve each been working to conceal in their lives, over their heads. Threatening that he can release and make their lives riddled with shame, embarrassment and potential legal trouble. With there being many renditions of this play and a board game, the cast faces the challenge of giving it their all to stand out from the others.

“Many schools this year are doing “Clue” so we wanted to make ours much more unique,” junior Zianya Salgado said. “We’re going more into the game theme than the movie theme, so we have many interesting and fun additions coming into play.”

Bouncing right back from the two-hour-long production of “Legally Blonde,” the drama department wastes no time getting ready to entertain another audience. “Clue” is a fairly old and familiar story so it’s nothing completely new to the cast. Many of them say “Clue” is their favorite movie and/or board game. Since it’s such a close to home piece, a lot of the auditionees felt comfortable with the audition process. Even with being given a short window of preparation time.

“Clue” has been my favorite movie and board game since I was 8 years old, so I knew I had to audition for it,” senior Kara Cody said. “I practically have the movie memorized from watching it so much and saw Westside do the play, so the only thing I needed to do was look over the sides a few times since I knew exactly where we were in the plot.”

As the cast moves through their journey to perfect this classic tale, they must work on cooperating well and getting ready to perform for an audience. They communicate to keep up with the expectations of the crowd while also adding their own flair and special parts to the play. The cast must always be present when performing on stage because unlike musicals, there are no songs to keep the performance moving along. With all the work that goes into productions like costumes, projections, set and lighting, the group is excited to perform their shows on Dec. 1, 2 and 3.