It’s that time of year again for Reagan theater as they prepare for the upcoming play, “You Can’t Beat the House.” All the roles have been cast through three stages of auditions.

There were about 40 students who came the first day of auditions, each with a 60-second monologue. On the second day everyone read scenes from the script, and then callbacks–an invitation for third auditions–took place.

“This was a very hard decision,” said theater arts teacher Jenn Janus. “I thought I had someone cast, then I would see another person I enjoyed.”

“You Can’t Beat the House” is a comedic play that’s not very well known. The play is about two robbers who break into a house for sale, but as they try to leave, a couple comes to look at the house. They are then in a predicament where the robbers are trying to leave the house without being caught. Within this situation, a lot of chaos and sneakiness ensues.

The main characters are Howie and Meryl, the robbers who are not the brightest, along with eight other characters who all end up on stage together in one scene.

When it came to choosing this specific play, Janus said she stumbled across it and thought it would bring in a good audience.

A good number of the cast have been involved with Raider theater productions since their freshman year, including senior Ryan Carchidi, who helps out backstage, and senior Ayzha Frazier, one of the actresses.

To the people involved in theatre, it is not just about rehearsing lines and props. The production also helps students make new friends who share common interests of being involved with the upcoming play. It helps some of the actors or actresses become less shy because they have to perform in front of a big audience.

“Theatre made me more confident and less shy because you get to be yourself while acting like someone else,” Frazier said.

Although it may look easy, the cast’s preparation is nothing to play around with. Rehearsals take place Monday through Thursday from 4 to 5:30 p.m. Rehearsals start with a fun warm-up then involve learning lines without the scripts, rehearsing tone, placement on the stage, and many more aspects to performing the play.

Compared to last spring’s production of “Legally Blonde: The Musical,” the question many have is the difference between a musical and a play. A musical consists of mostly music and songs that deliver dialogue, while plays consist of mostly dialogue and rarely contain any music in them.

“You Can’t Beat the House,” which will be performed Nov. 16-18, in the Reagan auditorium at 7 o’clock p.m. Tickets will cost four dollars in advance and five at the door.