NORWAY — “Wait Until Dark,” a classic thriller, takes the stage at Norway Grange Hall beginning Thursday, Nov. 14.

This production from OHMPAA (Oxford Hills Music and Performing Arts Association) wraps up their 2013 season with a masterfully constructed and highly entertaining play guaranteed to keep audiences on the edge of their seats.

A blind, but extremely independent and capable woman finds herself enmeshed in a dangerous cat-and-mouse game. The plot moves from one moment of suspense to another as it builds to an electrifying, breath-stopping final scene.

Jane Whitney Riseman, director, said “Wait Until Dark” is her first foray into stage drama. She is well known as director of several large-scale musical shows in the Oxford Hills area, including the Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School and community productions of “Annie Get Your Gun” several years ago, as well as “Swing” in 1998.

She wrote and directed “Serving Up Broadway,” a musical revue staged by the high school last April. “I have worked with casts of 20 or 30 people in the musical shows, and you would think that a play with only six characters would be easy,” Riseman said.

“Not so,” she said. The six characters in “Wait Until Dark” are diverse in age and personality. Riseman said her approach to directing those actors has been to encourage them to draw upon their own life experiences, and she is delighted with the performances they will deliver.

Molly Hill plays Susy, a blind but self-sufficient woman, and Maria Commoss, a high school freshman, plays Gloria, a latch-key kid in Susy’s apartment building.

Three ominous men appear at Susy’s apartment with disturbing suggestions that her husband might be involved in drug dealing. Andy Turner plays Roat, a sinister con man. Riseman said Turner does an outstanding job as this chilling sociopath with a skewed and demented view of the world.

Roat’s accomplices are played by OHMPAA veteran Tom Littlefield as Carlino and Steve Jones as Mike. Carlino is not so bright and his role brings some comic relief to the tense situations. Mike succeeds in gaining Susy’s unsuspecting confidence.

Steve Sessions plays Susy’s husband, Sam, and the roles of two policemen are played by Elton Cole and Ty Wyman.

Riseman said the play is technically challenging on several levels. It is necessary to have the audience understand Susy’s comprehension of the situations despite her blindness. The show’s lighting, staging, sight lines and special effects all are important to that end.

Technical director Norm Hutchins began working on the set in August, she said, and all members of cast and crew have been assembling props from the 1960s.

“Wait Until Dark,” written by Frederick Knott, was first presented on Broadway in 1966 and it became an acclaimed movie starring Audrey Hepburn, Alan Arkin and Richard Crenna the next year.

Norm Hutchins and Jeff Orwig are producers of the show. Carol Jones is director’s assistant and costumer; publicity is by Elton Cole; graphic design is by Jenny Adams and set decoration is by Claire Sessions.

“Wait Until Dark” is not appropriate for young children, but Riseman said high school drama club members have been invited.

Performances are at the Norway Grange, 15 Whitman St., Norway, at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, Nov, 14-16 and 21-23, and at 2 p.m. Sundays, Nov. 17 and 24.

Tickets are available at Books-N-Things, Main St., Norway, phone 739-6200. The adult price is $10 and tickets for seniors and students under 18 are $8. All opening-night tickets are only $5.

For more information, go online to www.ohmpaa.com.

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