There are wonderful things on the ocean floor and HCI got to show them off at their recent productions of the Little Mermaid Jr.聽 on Dec. 16-17.
The drama group had fun on stage bringing the Hans Christian Andersen story and both the Disney film and broadway musical to life on stage. Faith Schuler and Jalen Smith took on leading roles for their final year at HCI with Schuler playing Ariel, a mermaid princess who dreams of living on land and Smith playing Ursula, the sea witch who plans to take over the kingdom under the sea and uses Ariel to do it.
Schuler has been in every HCI performance since grade 9 but this last performance will be very special for her, she says.
Schuler hopes to continue her musical career at the University of Saskatchewan when she has been accepted to study music.
For director, Glenda Lees, this production was a school wide effort with art, industrial arts, and drama classes coming together to make sure sets and tech were ready for the show. The students themselves were the driving force behind getting the parts right and knowing what areas of the show needed to be worked on, says Lees.
Members of the community also pitched in with Tanya Schuler making on the costumes, from all the mermaid 鈥渢ails鈥� to Ursula鈥檚 amazing dress.
Without a designated theatre, the production takes a lot of work to transform the common area of HCI into a theatre. A lot of parents helped with that, says Lees.
鈥淎 lot of many different people helped with many different things.鈥�
Although it is not something done every year, this is now the second HCI musical in a row for the Drama Club with High School Musical being performed last spring.
Lees says this production was a little different with it being a junior production; a condensed version of the script and music that is easily performed by many young actors.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 the thing about a musical,鈥� says Lees, 鈥渋s that it incorporates so many people...they really had fun with it.鈥�
Lees appreciates all the community support of all performing arts, from drama to choir to band.
The students involved get many benefits from the arts in their school and Lees says it is great to see those programs continue because of support from the community.
See more photos in our Photos section.
