FHN’s annual fall play will take place on Nov. 6-7 and Nov. 13-14 in the auditorium. The show will start at 7 p.m. and tickets will be sold for $5 to $10, depending on when they are purchased. The play is called “Arsenic and Old Lace” and is about two elderly ladies who run a bed and breakfast, and the men who stay there always seem to die.

“‘Arsenic and Old Lace” is an old, classic play, people will definitely recognize it,” Director and drama teacher Kim Sulzner said. “People’s parents will probably see it and be like ‘Oh, I was in that when I was in school.’ It’s just sort of a murder mystery and everybody’s trying to figure out what’s going on. It’s not dark and heavy like last year’s ‘Bad Seed’, it’s a lot more tongue-in-cheek funny.”

Auditions for the show were Sept. 9 where students had to prepare a one-minute monologue and perform it in front of a panel of judges, which is made up of teachers, administrators and sometimes former students. The judges then judge and score the students performances. The numeric scores are then put in order from highest to lowest, and the people with the top scores come back for callbacks. Callbacks were held on Sept. 10 where students had to perform cold readings; reading aloud from the play’s script with little to no rehearsal.

“I thought my audition went well,” junior Zac Cary said. “It was a fun experience to apply what I learned at Missouri Fine Arts Academy into my audition. Personally, this show is a great experience for me. Last year, in ‘Bad Seed’, I played a psychopath. In ‘Anything Goes’, I was the big and over the top character of Moonface Martin. With ‘Arsenic and Old Lace, both character types are very prominent, sometimes even in the same character. I’m excited to try and combine the two styles I performed at FHN last year into one show.”

Rehearsals started Sept. 11. Most rehearsals last around two hours each, but many have lasted longer, due to Sulzner’s split schedule. Sulzner is currently directing two plays at once: Arsenic and Old Lace for both FHN and Hollenbeck. This means rehearsals are only 3-4 days a week, rather than the usual 5 days a week, so the rehearsals last longer.

“Everybody’s just going to have to be flexible this time since I have to direct two plays at once,” Sulzner said.

Sulzner is looking forward to giving students opportunities to do things they can’t do in class and seeing the whole play fall into place. One of the things she’s most excited about is the huge set that goes along with the play.

“The set is really complicated this time, and we built a really complicated set for the last play ‘Anything Goes’ so I know we have it in us,” Sulzner said. “It’s going to be a huge set with multiple levels and lots of doors. I’m excited to see how it all comes together.”