Hitchcock's The 39 Steps on the Malta Stage, Radio Show Style; March 28 & 29

The Malta Drama Team will be presenting Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps for two nights, Monday and Tuesday, March 28 and 29, in the Malta HS/MS auditorium at 7:00 p.m.

The drama team will be performing the 1935 Hitchcock thriller, which was based loosely on the 1915 adventure novel The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan, in radio show style. The show will have seven performers along with one at the sound effects table and will even include the commercials for the radio station.

Director Anna LaBrie said, "It's going to be a new challenge for the students. They don't have to "act" necessarily, but they still have to do a little to get the correct emotion and tone that their characters need. It's a good test for them to work on the projection of their voice."

The radio show has the actors playing different roles and using different voices for each of their characters.

"I really like doing the British accent," said Malta sixth-grader Sabra Sims, who plays two characters in the play.

"I like the thriller aspect of it," said fellow sixth-grader Courtney Merriman, who has four different characters to do the voices for. "It keeps you on the edge of your seat, wondering what's going to happen next."

Both of the young ladies like the different aspects of doing the radio show versus a regular play, saying that it really makes you think about how you are doing each voice for each character.

Malta junior, Izzie Hallenberg, who gets the job of doing all of the sound effects for the show said, "I think the radio show is very fun. I love doing the sound effects and being on the stage again. It's difficult to keep up at times, but I think I will get it figured out."

Just like the play last fall, there is a good number of middle schoolers mixed in with the high schoolers. They are all really talented and enjoy what they do. So head out and support them on one of the show nights. Again, it's Monday and Tuesday nights, March 28 and 29, at 7:00 p.m.