Moose Jaw’s Lyle Johnson is spearheading a project to find new partners to sponsor trophies that the Saskatchewan Drama Association hands out annually because the awards are over 40 years old.
Since 1979, the association has handed out the trophies during its one-act high school drama festivals. However, it is currently rejuvenating the awards because they are old and have run out of space for winners’ nameplates.
Johnson, a retired high school teacher who taught drama at A.E. Peacock Collegiate, is the association’s festival chair. He has maintained that position since he stepped away from educating pupils two decades ago.
“Drama and culture is a lifelong thing. You don’t have to stop after you’re done teaching. You can continue on and participate,” he said.
Johnson has been speaking with community businesses — he has plenty of time to chat since he’s retired — to determine if they would sponsor new trophies. He has already found some willing sponsors, while he is still searching for others.
The trophies include best technical crew, technical production, visuals, characterization and overall performance. Many awards are sitting in a corner of the drama room at Peacock Collegiate, waiting to be presented.
“I think it’s a wonderful idea that we have to do it because it shows the continuity and the support that’s lasted for over 40 years,” Johnson said. “That’s pretty good to have something last that long. But time marches on, and we just have to keep with the support for the culture and one-act festival.”
The next regional drama festival — Moose Jaw is in region 2 — occurs Thursday, April 20 to Saturday, April 22 in Peacock’s Centennial Auditorium, with Cornerstone Christian School as the event host. Community high schools have already registered seven one-act plays for the regional festival.
The winners from each of the 12 regions will attend the Regina provincial drama festival from Thursday, May 4 to Saturday, May 6, at the Riddell Centre at the University of Regina.
The winner will receive a trophy that the University of Saskatchewan has sponsored.
“Moose Jaw has (always been) a strong representative to the provincial festival over the years. And schools have won provincial recognition,” said Johnson.
He was unsure how many trophies Moose Jaw schools had won but knew Peacock, Central and Vanier had done quite well. Riverview had “a really strong program” in the 1970s, but the program has faded away. However, one teacher is attempting to revitalize the program.
“One of the good things we have in Moose Jaw is every school has good drama instructors and they do wonderful work with their productions that they stage,” Johnson. “So it’s always a good experience for people to go and watch the festivals … because they’re very challenging and the level of talent is very high.”
One neat fact about this year’s regional festival — and something that doesn’t happen often —is two schools are performing the same play, he continued. He thought it would be interesting to see how each interpreted the drama.
Johnson recalled a similar situation about 20 years ago, where five schools across the province performed the play “Why do we laugh?” during regionals, while two performed the drama during provincials.
“The directors (had) different concepts of how they wanted to express what the author tried to write,” he added.
For more information about this year’s drama festivals, visit https://saskdrama.com.
