麻豆视频

Carlyle Memorial Hall will soon see an influx of young thespians as it will welcome a number of schools in the area to the Regional Drama Festival, which will be hosted by Gordon F. Kells this year.

To be held on Thursday, April 10, Friday, April 11, and Saturday, April 12, the Regional Drama Festival looks to recognize youth for excellence in the world of theatre.

Dean Zacharias, the teacher-organizer for the weekend, is excited to see what all of the youth have to offer and gave special thanks to Cornerstone Theatre as well as to Shannon Klatt who will be stage managing and showing youth how to work the lighting system and sound board for the competition.

The competition requires plays of no more than one hour long, which is typically a two-act play. Two judges will attend with one focused on the front of house, or the actual acting, while the other adjudicator will focus on what's happening behind the scenes.

Zacharias explained that this can be quite nerve racking for the youth, but recognizes those often forgotten about in the theatrical world whom without a production could never take place.

"They have a lot of different prizes Sask Drama gives prizes for acting as well as for crew, stage managing, lighting, sound; they have all kinds of different awards for different aspects of the performance" Zacharias stated.

The competition is quite unique as the plays the youth will perform require I completely empty stage. They are then required, within their one hour time limit, to bring their props or set pieces onto the stage, perform, and remove the items again. Therefore, the entire set up of the stage must be choreographed to ensure everything goes smoothly.

In addition to this, the directors of the plays during the competition are not allowed to assist in anyway therefore putting the performance and problem solving of any issues that may arise onto the youth to figure out.

"The directors can't have anything to do with the play other than before hand, they can be involved with all the practices and rehearsals, but when the performance comes directors have to be in the audience, they can't be backstage helping the students, the students have to do it on their own," Zacharias explained, stating that he very much liked the idea of having students in charge of their productions and responsible for how the play turns out in the end.

Having looked through the schedule, Zacharias also said that schools will be performing both comedies and dramas.

Sometimes the topics addressed in the piece are silly and fun or they can address serious issues, which G. F. Kells took on last year with a performance regarding teen suicide.

Overall Zacharias said the weekend was going to showcase great talent and creativity from local youth.

"It's interesting to see what they come up with," Zacharias stated. "And just the format where you can't have a big set on stage beforehand because anything you're going to use you have to bring with you which adds a whole creative aspect to the production itself because everything has to come on stage with you."

"You can't set up weeks in advance and event the fact that they don't get an opportunity to practice on the stage, other than once, each school will get an hour, to go and run through things, look at the stage, to tape the stage where they want to put any marks on the stage to look at the sound board and figure out the lighting so they have to use that hour to their advantage to figure out what they're going to do and the judges are there for that too, watching to see how that goes."

In the end individual and group awards are given out for a variety of reasons, but the Best Overall Production will earn a spot at the Provincial Drama Festival in May which is held at the University of Regina.

In attendance will also be Saskatchewan born playwright Bradley Hayward of Oxbow who now lives in Toronto.

"I know that more than one of the plays are plays by Bradley Hayward" Zacharias explained. "Numerous schools in the area have done his plays for the last few years and I know he'll be in attendance as well, and that's always exciting when a playwright comes out to watch his own plays, so that's a pretty big deal."

School's participating include a junior and senior play from G.F. Kells, an entry from Arcola, two entries from Lampman, two from Oxbow, one from Redvers, and one from Moosomin.

The general public is encouraged to support the students in their efforts as they have put in a lot of time practising and working on their productions.

Sask. Drama has set the prices for the weekend: one play is $5, a day pass is $10, and a Festival pass is $20.

"We encourage the public to come out and check out the local talent," Zacharias invited. "I'm sure they will be impressed with all of the plays that the schools put on."

If interested in attending the schedule has been set as follows:

On Thursday, April 10, at 7 p.m. G.F.Kells (Junior Drama) will perform "Smarty Pants"; 7:45 Moosomin will perform "27 Reasons Not to be in a Play."

On Friday, April 11, at 1 p.m. Oxbow will perform "Dog Fleet;" Oxbow will also perform at 2 p.m. with "How to Kiss a girl;" at 7 p.m. G.F. Kells (Senior Drama) will take to the stage with "Selfie;" Redvers will perform "Miss Beth" at 7:50 p.m.; at 8:50 p.m. Lampman will perform "Hairball."

The performances will finish on Saturday, April 12. Arcola School will perform at 1 p.m. "Teachers on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown," and Lampman will perform at 1:50 p.m. a play titled, "The Moustache."