CENTRAL HIGH PRESENTS `PLAZA SUITE'

Four days before the opening night of Neil Simon's "Plaza Suite" at Cape Girardeau Central High School, director Cynthia Wyatt fumed like Mike Ditka in a "Cats" sweatshirt.

She didn't at all like what she saw in the previous rehearsal, and let her cast know it.

Afterward, Wyatt confessed to employing a bit of hyperbole to motivate her cast just as a football coach pep-talks his players to action.

"They're not Broadway stars but they're really good for high school students," she said. "There's a lot of talent sitting in that room."

Many of the student actors in the large cast have no experience on stage. "There's been a lot of teaching and a lot of training," Wyatt said of the six weeks of rehearsals.

Central's Red Dagger Drama Club will present the play at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and at 2 p.m. Sunday in the high school gymnasium.

The play, a three-act comedy set in a single suite in New York's Plaza Hotel, will be presented in the round, a challenge both for the young actors and actresses, and the director.

"It's a totally different acting style and a totally different directing style," said Wyatt, who is in her eighth year of directing plays at the high school.

"They have to keep moving. A lot of the directions in the book, I threw out."

Wyatt said the players especially will be challenged vocally as they move about. "There are really loud echoes in there," she said.

Each of the acts has a different cast. Act I is about a philandering husband; Act II, a rekindled romance; and Act III, a bride with cold feet.

The Act I cast includes: Amber Hopkins, Andrew Trueblood, Robbie Felker, Tim Arbeiter and Natalie Boren, with student direction by Chris Robertson.

The Act II cast includes: Matt Tanner, Matt Jackson and Kelly Russell. Jennifer Worth is the student director.

The Act III cast includes: Rene Robinson, Chad Reimann, Amy Crosier and Jeremy Welch, with student direction by Jennie Lukens.

Wyatt said "Plaza Suite" was chosen because it gives so many new people a chance to act. She agrees with the adage, however, that comedy is the most difficult kind of acting to do.

Quoting Jack Benny, she said, "Dying is easy. Comedy's hard."