(lively music) - University of Utah's Department of Theatre presents "The School for Scandal," a sharp 18th century comedy that proves gossip and reputation games have not changed in the age of social media.

Here with more is Elaia Echeverria who plays Lady Sneerwell.

All right, first off, tell us about this character you play.

- Oh, she is the worst of the worst.

She is like the main gossip mongol, like scandal maker.

She's a rich young widow and she very much lavishes in that.

And yeah, she makes up a bunch of lies and creates these situations for all the other characters all to benefit her.

- So basically you are the drama.

- Oh, I am the drama.

She's Regina George.

- Is it fun?

- Oh, it's so much fun.

And the language is so heightened and it's really interesting to play with because it is heightened language, but you adjust to it so quickly and so it's being mean in a very witty way, in a very passive aggressive way, which has been a ton of fun to work with.

- And you're also working with 18th century script challenges, but kind of making them modern as well.

- Oh yeah, the Oxford English Dictionary has been my best friend for the past little bit, but you'd be surprised at how quickly your ear really tunes into it and adapts to the language and then it starts to kind of sound modern and it's a little bit confusing because it's all these big words, but it's fun and spunky and yeah, it's been a ton of fun.

- No spoilers, but what is your favorite scene?

What is your favorite part of this play?

- Oh, I am a bit biased, but all of the gossip scenes.

We have these big scenes with like six to seven people where we are all just gossiping back and forth and saying the meanest things imaginable.

So that's pretty good.

There's also a scene affectionately called the screen scene with people hiding and overhearing different gossip.

So it's a lot of fun.

- So people can go and they can like release all of that and laugh at it and then be nice people afterwards, right?

- Yes.

A good message at the end.

- Absolutely.

Well, thank you so much for sharing this.

- Yeah, thank you.

- It sounds like so much fun.

If you wanna check out this play, we've got all the information for you right here on the screen.

It is "The School For Scandal," February 13th through the 22nd at Meldrum Theatre.

Just go to theatre.utah.edu and you can check out this University of Utah Department of Theatre production.

I'm Liz Adeola, and this is Contact.

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