Most play etiquette does not involve soaking spectators in the orchestra or having actors laughing at their own

lines. After seeing Potted Potter I believe more plays should incorporate these features because they crowd completely loved it. Potted Potter followed the seven book Harry Potter series in seventy minutes. Harry Potter and the rest of the characters where preformed by two actors, Daniel Clarkson and Jeff Turner. Jeff played Harry Potter and Dan amazingly was able to play every character by quickly transitioning from one character to the next. The plot follows Harrys quest to defeat the evil villain Voldemort who was played by Daniel Clarkson wearing cheap devil horns. Although the victory does not come easy, Harry has to face many challenges which each book is based on and by the end has succeeded in defeating Voldemort. The challenges of Harry maturing during his teen years combined with the struggle between good and evil creates difficult decisions in which Harry must overcome or in some cases not overcome. Harry has to think of friends, morality, and justice when deciding on difficult matters. He also must do all of this while permanently affected by hardships of his life such as his parents dying and the death of his mentor Dumbledore. Harry faces many challenges in the series, although Potted Potter takes comedic standpoint on the award winning series. The comedy of Potted Potter is first shown when Dan, who is put in charge of the props, reveals the props and to the surprise of Jeff includes a coffin, magical wardrobe, and the forbidden forest. Although the Forbidden Forest consists of a beach, coconut trees and dangerous animals aka crab. The set and props are again and again shown to be made as inexpensively as possible. For example the sorcerers stone was a brick and the Googley eyes worn to portray Mad Eye Moody breaks as Dan is shaking them around on his head. Throughout the rest of the play Dan apologizes for spending the scene and prop

money on a highly anticipated dragon from the fourth movie. Although during the reenactment of the fourth movie Dan pulls out a stuffed dragon and Jeffs mouth drops. I speculate the props cost all of $100. Jeff and Dan are the only actors and must represent dozens of characters while being able to restrict the play to seventy minutes. The mad rush to change from one character to the next and the problems that come with it are not seen as mistakes as typical play audiences might, but rather a great chance to laugh. Once, as Dan arrives from behind the magical cupboard with the attire to portray Dumbledore, Jeff has already started the narration of Rons part. Dan is then required to run back behind the cupboard and quickly change into Rons wig, although not without saying Opps, wrong costume loud enough for the crowd to here. On multiple occasions Jeff is caught laughing as he cannot contain himself from Dans crazy accents and songs created to portray a particular character. The lighting and set designer do not perform anything extraordinary although the directing from Dan, Jeff, and Hanna Berrigan, the associate director, compensate for them as the creative geniuses find ways to thrill the crowd. Although the lighting and set designers did not make a major impact they did follow out the instructions of the directors. First during a scene the lights go out and when they reappear Dan has a cupcake smeared over his face. Then for the quidditch scene a ball is thrown out into the crowd to be hit in the direction of two lighted up loops on the side of the theatre, sadly no points are scored. One of the best moments in the play is when Dan invites two kids up to the stage to try and catch the quidditch, which is Jeff in a large golden hoop dress refitted to look like a ball. The two kids run after Jeff

for a few seconds until he runs over the little five year old girl, Dan invited to the stage. During Jeffs fall to the ground the older boy makes sure to stiff arm him and then kicks Jeff once he is laying on the ground in pain. The boy is decided to be the winner and given a chocolate frog. The little girl is then given the chance to either get sprayed by a super soaker or receive a chocolate frog and let the crowd get soaked instead. Astonishingly she chooses the frog and the orchestra section is soaked. Most people would not believe an actor would drench a viewer with as much water as Dan did, although surely enough, some people walked out of the theatre dripping wet. In most situations walking out of a theatre dripping wet would not make me smile. Although after seeing Potted Potter I find I hard to believe for anyone to walk away with a frown even if you had just been soaked. The best part of Potted Potter was that it does not follow, but instead denied every conventional playwright methods. The low budget and messups would usually be seen as something to complain about and for some it might be, but for me in the sense of Potted Potter they did just the opposite. Before seeing Potted Potter I generally thought plays where dull and I still believe many are. Although potted Potter showed me a new type of play I had never experienced before, and I hope for the future to include many more. I hear they are heading up north to finish of their tour, I would even recommend people to take the drive.