If “Seinfeld” was a stage production, it might be something like “Hay Fever.”

The play, which opens Friday at University Theatre at Kansas University, doesn’t have much of a story line. Basically, it chronicles what happens when a quirky family of four invites four guests into their home for a weekend. Hilarity ensues.

“There really isn’t a plot,” says Chelsie Shipley, a Kansas University sophomore from Lakin who is in the production. “It’s just this ridiculous weekend full of misunderstandings and odd behavior. It’s a show about nothing.”

But for KU’s University Theatre, which will open “Hay Fever” on Friday, the show is indeed about something – testing what happens when faculty and students star in a play together.

This is the first time in about 20 years that more than one faculty member has been in a University Theatre performance. Leslie Bennett, assistant professor of theater and film, and John Staniunas, associate professor and chair of the department of theater and film, have two of the key roles in the production.

Jack Wright, the theater professor directing the play, says the age of the characters made “Hay Fever” a perfect candidate for having more faculty involvement.

“From a director’s standpoint, it’s fun to watch students learn (from faculty) and realize everybody’s in the same boat,” Wright says. “Experienced actors struggle like any actors.”

The play, by Noel Coward, was based on a weekend the playwright spent with Broadway star Laurette Taylor and her husband in 1921. It includes elaborate period costumes, and cast members have focused on perfecting their British accents.

Staniunas and Bennett plan to turn their experience with the cast, along with other research, into a published paper. They want to examine how other universities treat faculty-student interactions on stage.

Staniunas, who plays the father, David Bliss, says he sees the benefits of that interaction.

“Doing this raises the bar for our students,” he says. “And it raises the bar for us, too. We have to be the most professional we can be.”

Bennett, who plays the mother, Judith, says there hasn’t been an “us-and-them” attitude in the cast.

“We work hand in hand with the student performers,” she says. “We’re colleagues with our students. It’s been incredibly rewarding and exciting.”

Shipley, who plays Clara, the family’s maid, admits she was nervous at first to work with faculty members who also are professional actors. But that apprehension soon wore off.

“It’s interesting – you see them in a different light,” she says. “When we’re on stage, we’re peers. Backstage, it’s like you’re hanging out with your friends.”