The drama club is back with a fall play titled Puffs! Puffs is a spin-off parody of the Harry Potter series. It focuses on a young wizard named Wayne Hopkins and his friends, Oliver Rivers and Megan Jones. After they are all sorted at the opening ceremony, Wayne, Megan, and Oliver find out that they are all a part of the Puff house. Contrasting the comedic feeling of the show, there are many scenes where the audience sympathizes with the characters due to their heartwarming actions. The main synopsis of the show revolves around Wayne and his fellow Puff friends in their attempt to win “third place or nothing” in the annual house cup competition. The storyline from the Harry Potter series is still present, but it is told from the point of view of a side character—Wayne Hopkins. 

In the Canyon rendition of Puffs, Vincent Logan plays the role of Wayne Hopkins, Elyse Mumaw plays the role of Megan Jones, and Will Eissing plays the role of Oliver Rivers. The production follows the three friends on their 7-year schooling journey at a Certain School of Magic and Magic. The entire cast was extremely engaging and fully immersed in their characters, which helped elevate the realism of the magical world that they were trying to create. The show is decently lengthy, but throughout it all, the audience was laughing and engaged in the story that the actors on stage were telling. 

I interviewed a few of the main actors in this production and got their point of view on their experience while putting together Puffs. Leo Chester, who plays Cedric Diggory and Mr.Voldy, “loved the amount of freedom [they] had in this show,” and he felt that the playfulness and the fun that the actors had together is what was “truly magical” about Puffs. One of the main things that I noticed about the amazing dynamic of the show was the amount of connection and trust that the cast had with each other. I was able to watch the final dress rehearsal, and in watching the cast warmup together and have fun with each other off-stage, I was able to see that they all treated each other like family. As someone who has been in numerous on-stage productions, I can empathize with Leo and Vincent when they say that a lot of  life-long friends and memories were made, and that “this experience will definitely stick with [them] for a long time.” 

The main takeaway I had from watching the play was the message of perseverance and optimism. As the Puffs showed in the production itself, hard work and determination always pays off. No matter how hard it was for the Puffs, they always kept a positive mindset that things will get better. They didn’t let the low points in their journey weigh them down, but they learned from it, and like the Puffs said, there is “No Being Too Sad!”