Noah has a problem: He doesn’t quite know if he should hang the picture of Jesus nailed to the cross next to the picture of Jesus at the last supper or above the picture of a yellow-haloed Jesus with a glowing yellow lantern. After settling on the latter, Noah, played by Communication freshman Jack Sachs, pulls another Jesus picture from the bottom of a heap of Jesuses depicted on computer paper and hangs it on the dingy brown wall of the Shanley set.

“Jesus was really cooperative because he stayed on the ball when we needed him to,” said Communication sophomore Blake Silver, referring to the 20 or so Jesus posters hanging on the wall and desk — not to mention the Jesus bobble-head doll or the miniature Jesus figurine.

Sachs and Silver star in Vertigo’s fall show, “The Peckenpaw.” Written by Communication sophomore Bridget Moloney, this hour-and-10-minute comedy is about ambition, betrayal and one man’s search to find the correlation between historical events and the depiction of Jesus’ hair length in works of art.

Sachs’ character is hoping his art history findings will earn him the Peckenpaw, a secret grant given to college students who overcome adversity and/or make a groundbreaking discovery. Noah has spent the past 12 years focused totally on winning this grant.

“I admire Noah’s ambition but fear the potential of any blind enthusiasm,” said Sachs, who said he strives to be less absurd than his character. “I think it’s really cool he worked so hard on something he loves, but he doesn’t see clear at all, and that’s his problem. He’s forgotten what it means to live because he only sees the Peckenpaw.”

Moloney, a Communication sophomore, said the play “The Maltese Falcon” inspired her to write a show about deception and double-crossing. She wrote “The Peckenpaw” last winter and petitioned it to the Vertigo board in April.

“The script wasn’t quite completed by April, but (the Vertigo board) had a lot of faith in me,” Moloney said.

“The Peckenpaw”‘s director, Communication senior Martha Marion, helped revise the script with Moloney over the summer in Los Angeles, and they, along with the two producers, cast the show as soon as school started up again.

“I really wanted to be a big part in the casting because I wanted to see how certain people handled each character and comedy,” Moloney said. “And I wanted to see each person because I’m power-hungry.”

After the initial casting, Moloney said she decided not to attend the first few weeks of rehearsals because “no one wants you to give line readings.” She said she trusted her director and cast to get the show on its feet before she re-entered the process.

“After the writing, it was a pretty stress-free process for me because I handed it all over to Martha,” Moloney said. “I trust her with my life. Literally. She found things in (‘The Peckenpaw’) that I didn’t see.”

Marion said she enjoyed being able to put her “directorial eye” into the play while it was still being revised. One thing she added to the script was a dream ballet.

“Their emotions are so extreme that they can’t speak anymore and they just have to dance,” Marion shouted over the “Newsies” soundtrack as her cast was warming up.

Marion said she appreciated her cast’s ability to take their parts to the extreme and then “reel it back in.”

Silver, who plays Noah’s “gay biomedical engineer” friend, joked that he took his character development to the extreme — and almost didn’t come back.

“Acting is a selfish craft in that it’s all about self-indulgence,” he said, half-smirking. “For example, in order to get in touch with my feminine side, I ate Godiva chocolate ice cream and watched television.”

Marion, too, had to do groundwork in her directorial role because she could not glean ideas from past productions.

“Since there was no ‘Peckenpaw’ previous that I could observe to see what they did, I had to start with a clean slate,” she said.

As a member of Mee-Ow, Marion used her knowledge of improvisation and sketch comedy as a general guide. She also watched “Wet Hot American Summer” for comedic influence.

Sachs said one of the perks about doing a student-written play is that if something doesn’t make sense, you can talk to author and fix it.

“It’s been fantastic to work with the inspired Bridget Moloney,” Sachs said. “She’s hot. She’s really hot. She wrote a seriously amusing play that deserves concise, flattering criticism.”nyou