Oliver Adams has a secret. 

When will Margot Bell, the subject of the secret, find out?

This description forms part of the plot line of “The Angel Next Door,” to be performed at Presser Arts Center beginning Friday and running through Oct. 5 and then Oct. 10-12. The show will be performed in the Stribling Black Box Theatre. 

“The Angel Next Door” was written by Paul Slade Smith and the story is set in 1948. The play premiered two years ago, according to Smith’s website. It is recommended for ages 13 and up because of adult material.

Play director Greg Pauley, actors and a member of the production staff spoke about the play before a rehearsal last week. 

The story centers on a book written by the main character, Oliver, who is a novelist, and the attempts by two established playwrights to turn that book into a play. But they have to wait until the book is published, which it has not been. Oliver has fallen in love with an actress, and he has written this story about her, Pauley said, noting the two have met once and have carried on a correspondence through love letters. 

“And the ultimate love letter is ‘The Angel Next Door,’ the novel he wrote about her,” Pauley said. The actress, Margot, has not read the book. 

The playwrights – Arthur and Charlotte Sanders, a married couple – and Oliver and Margot meet at a mansion in Newport, Rhode Island, and Margot is there to perform for an heiress. What happens from there are conversations heard because of thin walls in the mansion and what actions and emotions that surface from that point. 

Taking the theme into account, Pauley said the play shows how theater really can change lives.

“And Charlotte actually says that,” he said. “It does change the lives of Margot and Oliver because it allows them to see that they really do care for each other, they really don’t care about what’s happened in the past.”

Pauley discussed the role of theater and how the audience is important, explaining audience members are almost an additional cast member. The cast “really feels the energy from the audience,” he said.

As far as “The Angel Next Door,” Pauley said he thinks audiences will like the lovability of the characters and the farcical nature of the story. There’s physical comedy in the play but it’s also witty, Pauley said.

“I don’t say this about a lot of comedies – it’s a really sweet play,” he said.

Sarah Femrite, who plays Charlotte, said her character is the kind of person who always looks at a glass half full. 

“She’s very optimistic but she’s also a go-getter, like if something’s not right then she’s going to make it happen,” she said. “She believes that theater can change the world, (that) it can bring everybody to a happier place and can make things better.” 

She said her and her husband’s characters kind of serve as mentors for Oliver. 

“It is a wonderfully funny, romantic comedy with a lot of humor,” Femrite said about the play. “It’s going to be a great girls’ night or date night.”

Justin Queen plays Oliver and said his character’s idealistic nature drew him to Margot and he sees the very best in her, even though it really isn’t her true self in a way.

“I mean, she is very sweet and everything, it's just that he kind of built an image in his mind that she was pure and innocent, when obviously she isn’t fully innocent,” Queen said. “And that’s kind of part of the flaw of a total romantic in that they will often build an idea in their head and be slow to realize when something may not be not realistic.”

But Oliver still loves this woman, and over the course of the story, he comes to reconcile reality with the ideal image in his head of the woman and grows up - at least romantically, Queen said.

Jeani Vermillion plays Olga, the servant, and is the comic relief and said her character can be surly, mean and angry but in the “long run, she has a heart of gold.” 

Vermillion’s husband, Dale, oversees props and set dressing for the play and said the set itself is a character in the play, but “you don’t want it to be one that comes out and screams at you, you want it to be subtle, where you feel at home in the play as well.”

For more information about “The Angel Next Door,” including tickets, access www.presserpac.com/purchase-tickets.

Cast:

Charlotte Sanders: Sarah Femrite 

Oliver Adams: Justin Queen 

Arthur Sanders: Karsten Femrite 

Olga: Jeani Vermillion 

Margot Bell: Nadine Jamison 

Victor Pratt: Marcus Moore