Montgomery High School freshman Erik Weiss wants to kiss a washing machine and he wants to do it front of an audience.
Weiss is one of 10 Montgomery High School drama students heading to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland next summer to perform a handful of one-act comedies as part of the world's largest art festival.
And the role Weiss is really gunning for is that of a washing machine repair man who falls for one of his clients — the actual machine, not its owner.
"It's really pretty funny. It's a washing machine," he said.
Montgomery will join a troupe from Elsie Allen High that also was invited to the 2011 festival.
The two Santa Rosa schools were chosen from about 2,000 nominees, according to the High School Theater Foundation based in Charlottesville, Va., which oversees the selection process.
Susane Burns, chairwoman of the visual and performing arts department at Montgomery, visited the festival last summer and said the three-week affair takes over nearly every inch of the historic city.
"They have 250 performing spaces in Edinburgh. They turn churches into theaters, they turn libraries into performing spaces, they turn pubs into performing spaces," she said.
Montgomery's students will perform in four time slots over the course of the festival in August. The rest of the time will be spent soaking up the works of thousands of others performers from around the world, Byrne said.
"They have professional groups, amateur groups, people trying to break into the business, college students, community groups from all over the world," she said.
That is a facet that excites Montgomery sophomore actress Jackie Chalmers.
"I personally love the feeling of acting and being on stage so being surrounded by so many other high school and college students who feel the same way sounds exciting," she said.
The trip begins with three days in London which will include a visit to Shakespeare's Globe theater.
The group hasn't yet nailed down the lineup of pieces they will perform in Scotland but rehearse many of them regularly in class, Chalmers said.
Byrne said the group needs to raise about $75,000 to send 10 students and three chaperones on the two-week trip.
Fundraising starts in earnest Monday night with "Vikings Raid Broadway," a reunion of sorts of Montgomery theater alums who will perform Broadway hits.
Montgomery graduate Paul Staroba, who is associate conductor for "A Little Night Music" and "Next to Normal" on Broadway, as well as full-time pianist for the Radio City Music Hall Spectacular, will accompany the performers on piano.
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