OV stages "The Sing"

SOUTH OTSELIC – Students at Otselic Valley Junior/Senior High School will perform a production of “The Sting” at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday nights. The cost of admission will be $5 for adults, $4 for senior citizens and $3 for students. The stage version of the 1973 film, starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford, is sure to entertain the audience, with its large cast of risqué characters.

Megan Knickerbocker is the student director this year. A senior, Knickerbocker has been participating in school productions since she was in seventh grade. She said she has known since then she would be interested in directing. “It was an ambition I had. I thought, I’m going to work toward that,” Knickerbocker said.

“The Sting” tells the story of Johnny Hooker (played by Eric Wentworth), a young con man seeking revenge for the murder of his friend. Hooker teams up with master con man Henry Gondorff (played by Jerod Waltz), and together they plan to take $500,000 from a corrupt banker, Doyle Lonnegan (Jack Conway).

The cast, made up largely of juniors, has been working on the play since late September. “For a student production, this is as complicated as you can get,” said Michael Foor-Pessin, the teacher who has been overseeing the project and has been involved in at least 15 school productions.