Drama students from the Moose Jaw area will attempt to channel their inner Laurence Olivier or Judi Dench during an upcoming festival that could see them win awards and provincial accolades.
Schools in the 12 regions under the Saskatchewan Drama Association (SDA) have been competing for a month to determine who will attend provincials in May in Regina.
In region 2, students in grades 7 to 12 from around Moose Jaw will perform one-act plays from Thursday, April 20 to Saturday, April 22 at the Centennial Auditorium in A.E. Peacock Collegiate, with Cornerstone Christian School the event host.
The doors open at 6:45 p.m. on Thursday and Friday and the plays start at 7 p.m., while the doors open at 12:45 p.m. on Saturday and the plays start at 1 p.m. There will be two plays each day, with each performance lasting roughly an hour.
Tickets are $15 per day or $30 for the entire festival
The six regional schools include Cornerstone, Riverview Collegiate, Vanier Collegiate, Peacock, Central Butte and Caronport’s Briercrest Christian Academy.
Cornerstone and Riverview perform Thursday night, Vanier and Peacock perform Friday night and Central Butte and Briercrest perform Saturday afternoon.
Adjudicators will judge each performance and give each team points for their on-stage acting and how well the team functions backstage with technical aspects such as stage management, costumes, makeup and lighting, explained Tanya Johnson, host organizer, Cornerstone teacher and SDA board volunteer.
“They also give feedback to each of the groups, so it’s a learning opportunity for the teacher-directors as well as the students,” she continued. “So things that they liked, things that they had questions about (and) things we could maybe do better.”
Judges will give awards for best overall production and runner-up, with those two teams then participating at the provincial drama festival at the University of Regina’s Riddell Centre from May 4 to 6.
Johnson attended Peacock as a student and competed in the drama festivals there. Once she became a teacher, she began entering groups of students into the competitions.
She has also been the regional host co-ordinator many times for more than a decade, while she rotates through the position with other local teacher-directors, including Riverview’s Janice Lamb.
“I’ve been involved with the Saskatchewan Drama Association for more years than I can count now,” Johnson laughed.
Moose Jaw is blessed to have strong theatre programs because teacher-directors work hard with their students, Johnson said. It’s great to see the youths shine on stage and incredible to see them improve every year.
“People won’t be disappointed if they come out; it’s excellent theatre,” she continued. “And so it’s always enjoyable; there’s always such a variety.
“And then for those of us who have been around for many years, we get to see students kind of grow up on stage … with a different character or in a different role from year to year. It’s pretty cool.”
It’s exciting to have the drama festivals back — they were sorely missed — after the pandemic cancelled them for several years, Johnson said. Youths can now freely display their gifts and talents, which is rewarding as a teacher and audience member.
“Come out and see kids do really cool things on stage. (Come) to support our local students, to celebrate the arts and even just to celebrate the fact we can come back together and be in theatres and enjoy live theatre,” she added.
“It’s just a great event. People won’t be disappointed. These students work really, really hard on their production and they just put on quality, quality shows.”
