MANCHESTER -- Playwrights dating back at least to Shakespeare, and probably well before that, used the device of the play within a play to drive a plot forward. In "Hamlet," one of Shakespeare's best known works, it was used to smoke out the villain of the piece.

Burr and Burton Academy's theater team is gearing up to present a play that is about another play, only this time the goals are more lighthearted. In "Play On," a play written by Rick Abbott, a troop of actors is attempting to stage a production, and opening night is fast approaching, but gremlins are lurking at every turn. The play is rich with comedic possibilities.

"Something fun"

"I really wanted to do a comedy," said play director and drama and dance teacher Jim Raposa. "I wanted to find something that was fun, that we could really sink our teeth into."

"Play On" would seem to offer ample opportunity for that. On one level, the play involves a struggling theater company that is pushing to get the kinks out of a show that is in its final rehearsal stages.

But the playwright, who has offered the play on a royalty-free basis to the company, keeps adding changes and rewriting the script even as the opening curtain looms. Things aren't being helped along by the fact that the actors are squabbling and the technical side of the play is in a state of disarray.

The play appealed to Raposa, a long-time theater professional, because the script reflects what often really goes on behind the

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scenes as a show is about to go up and changes are being made seemingly as much for their own sake as for anything else, he said.

The play within the play -- titled "Murder Most Foul" -- involves a love triangle, according to Raposa. Two of the characters in "Murder Most Foul" -- Violet and Dr. Rex Forbes, are engaged to be married, but Violet and Billy, another character in the play, are extremely attracted to each other.

Two other characters, Henry and Margaret, are planning to hold a party, and a precious gem -- a diamond set in a necklace -- has been purchased by Henry for his wife. But the gem is apparently cursed. Dr. Forbes is in reality a thief named Stanley Grimes, and he has dipped the precious gem in cobra poison so that whoever owns it will die. He then hopes to acquire it at a low price.

Inter-play tension

The tension between the plot of Murder Most Foul," and the stumbling production of the acting company not only makes for some humorous possibilities, but it also imposes some demands on the actors. They have to negotiate their way through three roles, actually -- themselves as actors in the play, and the characters in the play and the play within the play.

It's a veteran cast though -- six of the actors in the 10-member cast are seniors and have acted in several productions already. That helps, because comedy, done successfully, is in many ways more challenging that other types of drama, Raposa said.

"What we may find funny to ourselves may not be found funny by the audience," he said. "You have to be clear with it, from where you want them to laugh, you have to hold for the laugh, and that takes experience. You have to really be in tune with the audience, because if you go on automatic pilot and they start laughing and you continue on, they're going to miss a lot of information and then what happens is they're (the audience) not part of it."

Rick Abbott, the playwright, is actually a nom de plume for Jack Sharkey, who produced more than 40 plays before his death in 1992 at the age of 61.

"Play On" opens on Wednesday, Nov. 11, and runs through Saturday, Nov. 14. Showtime is 6:30 p.m. each night -- no matinees are planned. For tickets, call 802-549-8224, or visit www.bba.ticketjunior.-com.