On February 12th, the Gallatin High Theater Club debuted an original play that they planned to bring to the stage of the Thespian Festival in Missoula this year on the weekend of February 15th. “The Chilling Secrets of Albright Manor'' was an original piece written and directed by GHS senior, William Lehman, member of the GHS theater program since his freshman year. This play proved to be well produced and fun to watch as it was an impressive introduction to playwriting for Lehman. 

“The Chilling Secrets of Albright Manor” was a classic murder mystery story. Starring Eliza McLean, a sophomore at GHS, and August Pust, a junior, as two polar opposite college boys. The story takes place at Albright Manor, a spooky and supposedly haunted mansion where decades earlier the residents suffered miserable deaths. McLean’s character, Simon, and Pust’s character, Philip, work as lower level employees at a television company. From sheer bad luck, the characters were assigned the task to film and star in an episode of a ghost hunting at Albright Manor, for their company. The boys agreed to take on the episode, although reluctantly. Simon reveals his personality as a total scaredy cat and his counterpart Philip was comically moody, especially towards Simon. The opposite personalities created a goofy dynamic and built up to a romantic one by the end of the play. After confessing their love to each other, Simon and Philip encounter the villain and owner of Albright Manor, Alexi (played by Julian Staggs). Alexi revealed  himself to be the killer of his family and threatened Simon and Philip with death. Simon, who made it clear that he came prepared to the haunted mansion, whipped out holy water and defeated the villain whose face melted off, right on stage. The play concluded with the two, now in love, college boys back at work, and happily not involved in any ghost hunting. 

When asked about what he hoped to achieve with his play, the writer, William Lehman shared that “Queer representation (especially in men) is not- often seen in media.” and that he wanted “Others to see those relationships and feel welcome.” Observing  issues from the community and taking action is not an easy thing, and especially not as a teenager. Lehman was able to address something that was important to him and incorporate it into his art, turning a simple murder mystery into a narrative representing the present world around us. However, the romance did feel a little out of place. Throughout the show, the two characters primarily fought, and not in a manner resembling an old married couple. The relationship and show in general could have used some subtle nods to the chemistry between Simon and Philip. As an audience member of RomComs, it is always fun to pick up on the attraction of the characters and ask the cliche question, will they won’t they. Even though the relationship between Lehans characters felt rushed the show was still able to achieve what Lehan hoped. There was representation of a queer male couple and the two starring actors did a great job of bringing that relationship boldly to life. 

Overall, as Lehman would say regarding the tech and actors “Each of them are incredibly talented.” All members of the show were well prepared and rehearsed, and there were no noticeable slip ups of lines, missing props, or other minor theatrical disasters. At least not to the watchful eye of the viewer. It was evident that these actors worked hard and it paid off in their performance. Additionally, Lehman had a very creative idea of how to incorporate the crew of the show. Oftentimes, high school productions cannot reach a professional level of disguising their crew while they move around furniture and change the scene set up. As members of the audience, it can get awkward sitting in a silent dark room waiting for a scene change and watching the crew stumble around in the dark trying to move a couch as quickly as possible. This wasn’t an issue during “The Chilling Secrets of Albright Manor” however, since Lehman had an ingenious idea to include the crew members as small background characters in the show. This allowed the crew members to switch scenery on stage during acts and off. The entire crew that was involved in moving props and changing settings were dressed up as ghosts of Albright Manor. This little change to the script was very creative, humorous, and allowed for the audience to stay engaged in the story and away from focusing on the crew during scene changes. However, Lehman himself states that “I would have definitely used more sound and lighting cues in this show.” Unfortunately, due to restrictions because of ThesFest parameters, sound and lighting was not as advanced as Lehman would have liked. 

The crew continued with good work, in the costumes and makeup department. The makeup department gave the main villain a pale complexion making him appear ghost-like to the viewers and made him even creepier when the actor was able to rip his face off, leaving a bloody face of makeup underneath, when Simon defeated him with a spray bottle of holy water. Between the makeup and good performance, the actor looked like he had actually ripped his face off in agony. The costumes also proved well done with a ghost dressed in time-accurate clothing that looked like it had been to the grave and brought back on stage just for the audience. 

Stagg’s villain was divinely comedic with a hat bit and many other little details that sent the audience into hysterics. To further the main villain, Staggs used an accent to build the character up. Despite the fact the accent is hard to discern between German, French or Russian, this could also be interpreted as Staggs adding layers to add to the mystery of his character’s quirky persona. Unfortunately, the time restriction set on the play because of ThesFest parameters created noticeable cut downs of lines and plot development. Side characters of the play were robbed of lines and the climax of the play was anticlimactic because of its little build up. It would have been enjoyable to have some more presence of the side characters to break up the repetition of scenes between the main characters. Despite the lack of lines however, actors portraying side characters stayed engaged in scenes and did not drop character, like pros. The bitter rivalry between the main two characters and the villain was unfortunately underwhelming and not completely convincing. Developing an intricate plot however can be difficult in less than an hour.

Despite the fact that the show’s plot and character development could use some work, there were plenty of aspects that were excellently executed. Albright Manor was an impressive original work for the Gallatin High Theater Club to add to their legacy. It was obvious that this was an amazing opportunity for the program to show off their talents in acting, writing, and design. It appeared the judges of the 2024 Thespian Festival were in agreement that the show put on well, as they awarded William Lehman’s “The Chilling Secrets of Albright Manor” with the Best Student Directed award. Hopefully, the program will continue to receive awards and the recognition that they deserve and continue to succeed as they embark on their next student directed production of Clue. The Magic of many more shows are surely to be brought to life on stage by GHS students in the future, so don't miss it.