Detroit — Finding a good play to put on in which all the roles are for men can be challenging, says Brian Meldrum, director of this year’s student play at Sacred Heart Major Seminary.

Meldrum, 27, who is in second-year pre-theology, says he and another seminarian spent time reading plays last summer in order to come up with a good one for the Sacred Heart Theatre Club to do this year. And they wanted one with a large number of roles, so as many seminarians as possible could take part.

“Last year, we did ‘12 Angry Men,’ but we wanted to do a comedy this year,” Meldrum says.

See It What: "Room Service" by John Murray and Allen Boretz Who: Sacred Heart Theatre Club When: Friday and Saturday, march 25-26, 7:30 p.m. Where: Sacred Heart Major Seminary Auditorium, 2701 Chicago Blvd. at Linwood, Detroit How: Admission is free of charge, no tickets required. A free-will offering will be taken to support capuchin Soup Kitchen Ministries

They decided on “Room Service,” a 1937 comedy by John Murray and Allen Boretz, about a Broadway producer trying to find a new play that will restore his fortunes and those of the out-of-work actors who also live in the same Times Square hotel.

Besides having a large number of male roles as written, Meldrum says he was able to adapt the two small roles for females into male roles, and to add a few bell hops to bring the total number of seminarians in the cast to 27.

The cast includes seminarians ranging from ones in their first year at SHMS to a transitional deacon who will be ordained to the priesthood this spring. And they come from not only the Archdiocese of Detroit, but also the dioceses of Kalamazoo, Lansing and Marquette here in Michigan; the dioceses of Lubbock, (Texas) and Madison (Wis.); and the Southfield-based Chaldean Eparchy of St. Thomas, the diocese for Chaldean Catholics in the eastern United States.

“It should be a good night out for people, and a good opportunity for them to get to know their future priests a little better,” Meldrum adds.