The Lion Players recently enjoyed a successful run of four performances of Larry Shue's The Nerd. The farce was performed to capacity audiences in the Black Box Theatre. The story is about a fellow (Willum) who thinks he is about to meet the man who saved his life in Viet Nam (Rick). When the good samaritan shows up, he turns out to be a nightmare. Rick turns out to be the worst example of a nerd anyone can imagine, and he will not leave! Willum doesn't have the heart to tell him to go away, because he feels that he owes him too much. In the mean time, Rick is systematically detroying Willum's life. The subtle and not so subtle attempts to get Rick to take the hint are some of the funniest moments I can remember in the Theatre. In the end, it all turns out to be be a set up by Willum's friend Axel to get him to realize that he must give up the things that do not matter in his life and pursue what makes him truly happy.

Of course, the Black Box is designed to place the emphasis on the performance of the actors, but farce often relies on many theatrical conventions. The Nerd is no exception. The play is set in a second floor apartment and requires four doors and a large window that must open. The floor of the theatre is tile over concrete, so it is impossible to anchor doors to the floor. This meant the use of some very careful carpentry and several 50 lb. weights to make them function properly. The lighting requirements were fairly simple with one interior setting and two specials for sunlight and moonlight through the window. Sound was another problem. In addition to mood setting music, the play required 27 tracks of prerecorded effects and answering machine messages. The answering machine becomes another character in the play, and the timing of the messages presented a real challenge. However, the most difficult challenge we faced was food. The prop crew had to deal with three bean salad, macaroni salad, spaghetti, deviled eggs, garbanzo beans, an apple core, and a lot of cottage cheese. The cottage cheese gets poured out of the window and onto a character who enters covered in it. The clean up was a nightmare!

In the end, all technical miseries were worth the effort, when the audience showed its appreciation through laughter. I hope you were able to see it, because still photos just do not do the show justice.

The answering machine contained the voices of seven characters.

The set contained four fully functional doors and one functional bay window.

A real set of blueprints were used to simulate the plans for the hotel.

Clelia relieves stress by breaking a dish.

Rick enters wearing a a Halloween costume. The script called for it to be a Monster from the Black Lagoon. However, one was not available. I thought this lobster served well.

I wanted him to hide from the characters but remain in view of the audience. The window shades worked well.

Rick got everyone caught up on his activities while eating deviled eggs. He ate eight to ten of them for each performance.

Rick almost wears the spaghetti after he announces that he filled up on the eggs.

Shoes and socks are collected for the game of Shoes and Socks.

Rick is too helpful for Ticky's liking.

Ticky refuses to cooperate.

Rick knocks the bag of shoes and socks out of the window. Of course, they land in water. This required a well timed sound cue for the splash.

Rick settles in on the couch for the evening and ends the evening with a rendition of the Star Spangled Banner while accompanying himself on the tamborine.

Willum demonstrates Rick's behavior as their airplane hit turbulence.

Rick shows Willum his improvement...a chimney drawn with a black magic marker.

Rick has business cards made. They read "Rick Steadman and Willum Cubbert, Architects and Best Friends". He only printed 20,000!

The tea included condiments like cream, sugar, and sand.

Watching the apple core until it turns brown is a special treat.

The traditional meal was that all-time favorite...warm water and cottage cheese. Yes, Rick drank it and kept it down!

In a desperate attempt to scare Rick into leaving, Willum turns into a swine, because he was "pig bit."

More attempts to frighten Rick into leaving.

They throw the cottage cheese out the window. This caused a bit of a clean up challenge.

Instead of being frightened, Rick takes over the ritual. This shot shows the moonlight special well.

Ticky enters...covered in cottage cheese. This caused more clean up challenges. At this point, the audience was in pain from the laughter.

Willum finally tells Rick to leave for good.

At last, the twist is revealed. The whole thing was a set up!