While the halls of Chapel Hill High School are usually adorned with posters highlighting clubs or activities, several weeks ago bright neon-colored posters with sparse wording alluding to the Harry Potter series started popping up.
One neon orange poster read, “Puffs. J. K. Rowling won’t like it.”
Another bright green flier read, “Puffs. We can’t tell you it takes place at Hogwarts.”
The sparse wording intrigued students, and students’ questions only grew as more posters appeared.
Senior Lior Politi said the posters were “confusing but intriguing,” compelling him to “seek out more information.”
Puffs, or Seven Increasingly Eventful Years at a Certain School of Magic and Magic is the fall play being put on November 14-16 by the school’s theater department. An unauthorized parody of the Harry Potter series, written by JK Rowling, Puffs is told from the perspective of the Hufflepuff house residents.
“Puffs tells the story of three insecure students who attend school for wizardry but struggle to discover where they belong,” theater teacher Thomas Drago said.
The play was written by Mat Cox in 2015 and premiered off Broadway in 2016.
The theater department’s version of Puffs is being directed by recent UNC graduate Carissa Wadsack-Stewart.
Drago, who has directed Hanes productions for the past 20 years, reached out to the University of North Carolina’s drama department, hoping to find someone to direct the fall production, leading him to Wadsack-Stewart.
“I wanted a younger director, familiar with Harry Potter, who could teach our students more current trends in actor training since I haven’t been a college student for 30 years now,” Drago said.
The new director has been positive for many of the students involved.
“It has been great having a new director give us new acting methods and artistic directions,” junior Cooper Rector, who performs in the Puffs, said.
The show follows a boy, Wayne, played by sophomore Paloma Polly, as he goes to a magic school eerily similar to Hogwarts in Harry Potter. He is placed into the Puffs house, and he and his friends attend the school for seven years and experience life in the shadows of Harry Potter.
Rector, who plays Oliver Rivers, the main character’s best friend, said the play will appeal to everyone, regardless of whether or not the audience is familiar with Harry Potter.
“If you’re a huge Harry Potter fan, you will love all the references and jokes on the Harry Potter series,” he said. “If you’re not a Harry Potter fan, you’ll still enjoy the jokes, heart-touching story, technical feats and ridiculous characters.”
Freshman actor Lyra Myers plays four different characters: Leanne, Ginny, Helga, and Frenchy. She said the production is “the most unhinged play I’ve ever read or seen.”
Senior Kate Hinson-Hume said she plans to attend a performance of Puffs, as the drama department created a sense of intrigue.
“I am just curious about it because of the signs in the hallway,” she said. “It’s a parody of Harry Potter, and I think that just sounds interesting and funny.”
Tickets can be purchased online at hanestheatre.seatyourself.biz for $10. The show contains adult language and mature content, rendering it not suitable for children.
