BY Vanessa Leung ’25
St. Mark’s theatrical productions of 2023-2024 are soon coming to a close with the Winter Play The Comedy About A Bank Robbery directed by Mr. Christopher Kent, Director of the Theater Department, with the help of stage managers Jacob Cifuentes ’24 and Angel Huang ’25.
Originally written by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer, and Henry Shileds of Mischief Theatre, the play takes place in the summer of 1958 in Minneapolis City Bank, where a priceless diamond is entrusted inside.
Mitchell Ruscitti (played by Yejee Hwang ’25), an escaped convict, is determined to steal the gem with the help of Neil Cooper (Vanessa Leung ’25), a loyal sidekick Caprice Freeboys (Katelyn Yang ’24), her mischievous girlfriend, and Sam Monaghan (Diane Kwon ’24) … the maintenance man. To get to the diamond, they go through a series of obstacles including stealing Robin Freeboys’s (David Zhou ’24) identity, confusing Warren Slax’s ( (Rebecca Garland ’24)) memory, lying to Sam’s mother Ruth Monaghan (Abby Hayes ’24), and slipping out of trouble from FBI Officer Randall Shuck (JC Chen ’24). With a messy mix of love triangles, mistaken identities, and secret schemes, who will end up with the diamond? Other integral characters of the play are played by Brannock Zanghi ’24, Jacob Cifuentes ’24, Hannah Cha’25, Henry Wang ’25, Ziad Shawaf ’25, and Emily Ling’23.
A highly comedic play including lots of laughter and a twist at the end. Here are some reviews about this play:
“Delivers swag loads of pleasure.” -Sunday Telegraph
“Thrillingly attentive and lung-bustingly funny.” -The Guardian
“A Fast and Furious comedy caper.” -The Times
“I wept hot tears of hilarity.” - Sunday Times
“Brilliantly Directed.” - Mail on Sunday
The Comedy About A Bank Robbery is a heavy tech involving a broken Murphy Bed, a moving chain fence and fish, an inverted wall, and last but definitely not least, hanging harnesses from the ceiling! Of course, the play couldn’t have been completed without our amazing tech crew and definitely NOT Yejee’s beauty. Many thanks to Andrew Lamprea ’24, Maisie Pierce ’24, Roy Baeck ’24, Andrea Xu ’25, John Cataldo ’25, Ziad Shawaf ’25, Brianna Kivugo ’27, Feifei Cao ’27, and Lily Oh ’27 for their hard work and effort!
Opening night is less than two weeks away, and the cast and crew of the play couldn’t be more excited. Cast member Hannah Cha ’25 expresses her nervousness for the play: “I know that the play is a beast, there’s a lot that we need to figure out in terms of…acting, and the play is [a place] where we need to coordinate a lot with each other in order to make [it] successful, but as nervous I am…I have trust [that] the cast and crew are able to collaborate with each other and make the production good!”
As rehearsals begin to lengthen and play characters slowly begin to take shape in the black box theater, be sure to watch out for a surprise performance by Mr. Kent, who will be singing an edited Taylor Swift song and giving a small preview in the exciting upcoming The Comedy About a Bank Robbery.
Get excited! An epic bank robbery fiasco is underway!