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Westfield High School’s next production will tell a familiar wizarding-school saga from a decidedly different perspective: the overlooked, fiercely loyal and frequently bewildered Puffs.

“Puffs,” a fast-moving comedy inspired by the Harry Potter series, follows the magical underdogs through seven eventful years from 1991 to 1998. The spoof finds much of its humor in avoiding the copyrighted names, words and locations associated with the original stories while playfully revisiting their major events.

Performances are scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday and Friday, Oct. 16-17, and 2 and 7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 18. Tickets cost $15 for adults and $10 for students and will be available at the door or through westfieldtheatre.com.

The production features a cast and crew of 54 students and will serve as Westfield’s Cappies show. Director Christine Maxted said its ensemble structure gives each performer an opportunity to command the stage.

“It’s an ensemble play, so everyone has an opportunity to shine and have their moment onstage,” Maxted said. She added that the comedy showcases the cast’s strongest comedic performers.

The Puffs lack the reputations for bravery, intelligence or cunning enjoyed by the school’s other houses. Instead, they build their identity around friendship, loyalty and community. While momentous events unfold around them, the play concentrates on the Puffs’ own magical mishaps and adventures.

Maxted said the story explores belonging and demonstrates that courage, friendship and loyalty can take many forms—a message particularly suited to high-school theater, where students with different personalities and skills collaborate on one production.

The set will represent several areas of the magical school, where most of the action occurs. A two-level design includes a revolving bookcase, while the collection of props features an inflatable dragon. Cast members also made their own wands.

The Puffs will wear warm, homemade-looking costumes in gold and black, conveniently matching Westfield’s colors. That coincidence has prompted the company to joke that its members are Puffs themselves.

Maxted described rehearsals as a surge of creativity and heart, with performers developing exaggerated characters, technicians building a world of castles and spells, and student leaders keeping the complicated production together.

She expects the show to generate plenty of laughter while leaving audiences with a message about finding pride, purpose and community—even when others see someone as finishing in third place.

Senior Morgan Palmer plays Wayne Hopkins from ages 11 to 18. Palmer described Wayne as a dorky, pop-culture-loving boy who desperately wants to become a wizard despite having little natural talent for it.

Wayne is loyal, passionate and courageous, with a plucky personality that distinguishes him from the other Puffs. He dreams of becoming a hero and idolizes Cedric, the group’s unofficial leader.

Palmer said the role offers the challenge and fun of portraying Wayne through puberty and showing how his ambitions change as he matures and confronts major events. Palmer also sees personal similarities with the character.

The production’s warmth, Palmer said, comes from the sense of friendship shared both onstage and behind the scenes. Although the Puffs endure hardship and loss, they continue supporting one another when little is expected of them.

Junior Brenna Pond portrays Megan Jones, one of the central trio alongside Wayne and Oliver. Megan initially expects to join the same house as her mother and struggles to accept becoming a Puff. Her friendships with Wayne and Oliver eventually help her recognize where she belongs.

Pond described Megan as confident, blunt and verbally sharp, but also guarded about her emotions. Once she embraces her Puff identity, she becomes happier and openly loyal to her friends.

Pond called Megan the most difficult role she has played because of the character’s emotional complexity and major turning point. It is also her first leading role and her favorite, she said, because Megan changes so dramatically over the course of the story.

Senior Clark Dalton takes on the villainous Mr. Voldy, an immortal and eccentric figure with a strange walk and a thoroughly evil disposition. He occasionally reveals a vulnerable side while speaking with his “death buddies,” but remains focused on killing Harry—even though seven years of attempts have failed.

Dalton gives Voldy a raspy voice amplified through a megaphone. He said the character’s power and ego let him dominate the stage, while his frightened followers are too intimidated to laugh at his jokes.

The contrast between the Puffs’ relentless cheerfulness and their terrified reactions to the grim events surrounding them will be another source of comedy, Dalton said.

Senior Mary Campbell plays Harry, reimagined here as an irritating hero who assumes every event revolves around him. Loud, egotistical and eager to make grand declarations, he constantly fights for the spotlight. The Puffs resent that everything exciting at school seems to happen to him.

Campbell said she enjoys playing such a self-absorbed character because the role differs from those she usually performs. She expects audiences to respond to the show’s physical humor, including exaggerated movement, fights and stage combat.

Beneath the parody, Campbell said, the Puffs’ bond as a found family remains at the center of the play—and gives its over-the-top magical chaos a genuine emotional core.