PlymProv Hits ‘Pirates’ Out of the PaRRRk
By Lena Donovan
Published 3/6/2026
“Pirates” was one of the best shows I have seen at Plymouth. Everything about the night felt special and new. From standing in a line to throwing balls on the stage, it all was perfect. “Pirates” was entirely student-written, produced, and directed by PlymProv and the Technical Theater Experience Club. This made the show even more cool. Zach Brown was the perfect director and Dungeon Master. The show was open for one night only on February 12, in the Elizabeth Cheney Studio Theatre.
I was shocked to see the line outside of the Cheney Studio Theatre. It ran all the way to the front doors of the Silver Center. Waiting in line was exciting, standing in the middle of a huge crowd who are all laughing and having spirited conversations in the foyer. It was nice to see that a lot of theater students who weren’t in the show came out to support their friends.
Once the doors opened, people flooded in to get the spot they wanted. The seats were filled within 20 minutes of the house opening. The audience was told to squeeze together, leaving just a few open spots for the lucky few who showed up late and got a seat. The crew and ushers were in pirate spirit, wearing hats and stripes. Max Shantler, the production’s Stage Manager, was an honorary cast member. He would come out from the depths of backstage with a big colorful wheel. The audience cheered and hollered every time he came out. “The wheel!” Max would shout, and the audience went crazy.
The set, designed by scenic designer Seth Moody and assistant scenic designer Connor Lavertu, was really cool to look at. It didn’t have much and was simple, but it left room for the actors to take more control of the stage. Platforms were pushed together making an upside U shape.
When show started, I was completely blown away. The cast came out and the audience’s energy was electric. Brown, as the Dungeon Master, came out and the laughter never died down. The main cast consisted of nine funny pirate stereotypes. There was a team of the heroes and then the villains. Though both groups were fun, the villains had a mischievous dynamic going on and their chemistry was great. The heroes consisted of five characters, the Captain (Nate LaPorte), Forest Mate/Parrotteer (James Kelleher), The Lookout (Lauren Christopher), The Drunk Bard (Devin Hershberger), and The Pirate Fairy (Avery Fecteau). Chrisotpher played The Lookout character especially well. There were also background characters who were referred to as “NPCs”. All did a great job of providing extra detail and making the audience feel even more included. Lavertu especially stood out as a parrot.
The audience was heavily involved in the show. In Dungeons in Dragons, players have to roll dice to choose their destiny. In the stage production, The Dungeon Master picked audience members to roll two giant 20-sided dice. The first choice we got was to name each character. Throughout the show, more and more audience members were picked to roll, and every time the Dungeon Master asked for a volunteer, would leap out of their seats for a chance to be picked. Some decisions were more serious than others. The decision at the end of the first act was to see what member would go “missing” first. At one point The Lookout just started walking off stage and it was stomach-clutchingly funny. She later came around to the other side of the stage looking completely clueless.
The plot revolved around the pirate crew finding missing pieces of a map and putting them together. The villains were racing them to get the treasure. The villains were a small team of three: Evil Captain/Sea Witch (Riley Scanlon), Tied-Up Guy (Jonathan Picard), Evil First Mate (Zach Orthman). These three had great chemistry together. Picard had great comedic timing and lifted the team just a tad more to make it the perfect squad.
Each team would challenge and trash talk each other. The audience would boo the villains while cheering for the pirates. It was chaotic and messy and absolutely perfect. The lightning effects combined with the sound design were awesome. Every sound clip and song worked perfectly. The lighting followed the tone of each scene amazingly. Red and blue lights would twirl around the stage while the actors were on their adventure. There were also projections on the back of the stage, elevate the scenes. If the cast was traveling by boat then there would be a water projection, and the cast would sway to make it more believable.
The makeup and costumes were also amazing. The detail and attention that went into each one was extraordinary. Fecteau and Scanlon had especially cool costumes. Fecteau’s fairy costume had hints of green which really made her pop on the stage.
Everything in the show was brilliant. The story played out well, and pirates was such a good theme for PlymProv to work with. I’m excited to see what they’ll do next.