Who: Crook County High School drama instructor Anita Hoffman will be giving balcony talks to ticket holders at the Tower Theatre an hour and a half prior to each of the six performances of “Cats,” which opens Friday (see full story page 7). The hilarious teacher describes the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical as having inherent challenges — perhaps more so for dog lovers — and shared some of her theater expertise with “GO!” The $10 per person cost includes a drink and signed “Cats” poster. Contact: towertheatre.org or 541-317-0700.

Q: What do you plan on discussing during your balcony talk?

A: Well, “Cats” is kind of a challenging play in that it’s about cats. Which, you know, some people are dog people, some people are cat people, so I’m trying to win over the dog people so they don’t walk out. The biggest thing is, it’s not an opera, it’s a musical. It’s got lots of dance in it, and it is about cats. It’s based upon T.S. Eliot’s poetry. It’s putting together what Andrew Lloyd Webber was thinking when he took a book of — they’re essentially like children’s poems — and turned them into a musical. He asked (Eliot’s) wife if he could use the material. She said, sure, but you can only use the material — you can’t add anything to it. The book is kind of challenging. He had to thread together all of those very different poems into a story. I think he does it brilliantly. … I was looking at research of musicals that are about animals …

Q: Are there a lot of those?

A: No. (laughs) There are a lot of plays. There’s “War Horse,” which is a beautiful play. There’s “Sylvia,” which is a play about a dog in a divorce. There’s “Animal Farm” — we won’t go there.

Q: Is that a musical?

A: No. Wouldn’t that be cool? You picture the big number (sings), “Some of us are more equal than others.” … So my balcony speech is just talking to people about, “Hey, this is what you’re going to see.”

Q: That’s must really help, right? I almost hate to admit it, but before I go see a Shakespeare play, I kind of brush up on what I’m going to see because it helps me digest it.

A: Exactly. Because, like, the first act you have to get your ear tuned to what you’re seeing to hear it. And then once you’re familiar with it, you’re like, “Oh yeah, now I get it.” But if you don’t, it’s like bad mime, you’re just watching and hoping you can figure it out by what the actors do.

Q: I was talking to (director) David DaCosta, and he was saying you can just enjoy the singing and dancing, but there is a plot you can follow along.

A: Yeah … the things he’s doing as a director to create relationship and character are even deeper. And some people will get it, and some people won’t. I think that’s the beauty of theater. It’s multilevel. … I think the people that have cats will recognize individual cat personalities way more than people who don’t. Each of the musical numbers kind of highlights a different cat. … And what will be really lovely is there are some songs in “Cats” that people will recognize, but they won’t have tied them to the musical. People will be “Ooh, that’s from that one?”

— David Jasper, The Bulletin