Since kindergarten, South Albany High School senior Alan Liesse has been involved with theater arts in one form or another.

Now at 17, he makes his directing debut with "Blithe Spirit," opening Friday at

7:30 p.m. in the theater at South Albany High School.

Additional performances will be at

7:30 p.m. Saturday and Monday and at 2:30 p.m. Sunday.

For the school's winter play, Liesse had the option of directing Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" or "Blithe." He chose the latter for personal reasons.

"I got the script when my grandmother moved into a retirement community," he said. "It was actually my grandfather's script from when he acted as Charles 40 years ago. I also had a little exposure to it back in seventh grade. When I got the script, I thought, 'Ah, now I can find out what this is really about.'"

"Blithe Spirit," written by Noel Coward in 1941, tells how novelist Charles Condomine invites an eccentric medium into his home in order to learn the language of the occult.

After a seance staged by medium Madame Arcati, Charles' first wife, Elvira, who has been dead for seven years, comes back to haunt him. The ghost is bent on tormenting and reminding him about their life together, even though the writer is now married to his second wife, Ruth.

Elvira decides that the afterlife would be much better if Charles joined her. The spirit contrives a plan to kill her husband, but it backfires and Ruth is killed instead.

Liesse has done more than discover the contents of the quirky British comedy. He's also learned what it takes to put on even a small production by drawing on his experiences with working with Beth Bentley and Miranda Prince. Bentley, an instructor, has directed performances at South, and Prince worked with Liesse in Albany Civic Theater's ACTeen play, "David & Lisa" in 2005. Liesse played David.

As a director, he's meshed both Bentley and Prince's styles of handling technical and production aspects into his own way of doing things.

Bentley, who is still on set, has taken a passive role but is still present for Liesse and the cast to draw on with questions, he said.

Tickets are available at the door for $3 for students and $4 for adults.

The cast includes: Freshman Rachel Williams as Edith; senior Samantha Morrison as Ruth Condomine; freshman Zach Rushing as Charles Condomine; junior Alex Bengel as Dr. Bradman; junior Alex Hickey as Mrs. Bradman; junior Ali Bethel as Madame Arcati; and sophomore Ame Beier as Elvira Condomine.

Heather Crabtree writes about entertainment for the Democrat-Herald. She can be reached at heather.crabtree@lee.net. or 812-6090.