Jon Johnson Photo/Gila Herald: Bulldog Theater Company members rehearse the play ‘Puffs’ which will be performed Friday, April 5 at 6:30 p.m., with a matinee on Saturday, April 6, at 2 p.m. at the David M. Player Center for the Arts.
By Jon Johnson
“Said Hufflepuff, “I’ll teach the lot, and treat them just the same.”
J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
SAFFORD – What was it like for special magical students of other wizarding houses at Hogwarts during the time of the great Griffindor/Slytherin clash of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter franchise? That is the subject of the play ‘Puffs’, which will be performed by the Bulldog Theater Company this Friday and Saturday.
Puffs will be performed Friday, April 5 at 6:30 p.m., with a matinee on Saturday, April 6, at 2 p.m. at the David M. Player Center for the Arts at Safford High School. Tickets are only $3 and are available for purchase here.
The Bulldog Theater Company is made up of members of the Safford High School Theater Club with math teacher Tamra Tilton as their sponsor.
“I am so proud of the students and all their hard work,” Tilton said. “The long hours have been worth it. The students have really grown.”
Puffs is a parody of Harry Potter born out of a semi-improvised show with an initial two-week run that has become the second-most popular play for high school theaters to undertake.
Written by Matt Cox, the play tells the story of the turmoil at Hogwarts as seen from the eyes of the Hufflepuffs – who are generally considered by fans as the least of the wizarding houses in the J.K. Rowling series.
Like the absurdist ‘Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead’, which followed the exploits of two minor courtiers in Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’, Puffs gives the audience an unfamiliar point-of-view of something familiar.
At one point during the sorting hat ceremony, our protagonist Wayne Hopkins tells the lad next to him what it was like for him to be just a normal boy who was swept away to a new magical world and how he thinks he must have some incredible mission to take on as the chosen one ready for seven years of adventures. The boy then excuses himself to be sorted, and he turns out to be Harry Potter.
According to Tilton, proceeds from the show will benefit next year’s production. So, for a fun time of Harry Potter nostalgia in a quirky way, check out Puffs performed by the Bulldog Theater Company this Friday, April 5 at 6:30 p.m. and Saturday, April 6 at 2 p.m. at the David M. Player Center for the Arts.
