Deer Lake -
Students bustled about Elwood cafeteria Monday afternoon setting up backdrops, pushing about props and layering on makeup as they prepared for a rough run-through of "Suzie Scrooge," one of two productions the drama classes will put on for their Christmas show.
For Brent Hewitt, a Level 2 student at the high school, it is his first time being a part of a dramatic production.
"I'm having a bit of fun during my last few years of school ... Since I started this year, I'm definitely doing theatre again next year," he said.
Hewitt, who is part of the lighting crew for "Suzie Scrooge," acknowledged that preparing for the curtain to be raised on opening night is not all fun and games.
"There's a lot of work involved, starting with reading scripts in class to figure out what (play) we want to do," said Hewitt.
Karlee Young, a Level 1 student, is participating in the Christmas show on stage as Maggie, a young girl in the Cratchit family.
"I just love drama, I love anything to do with drama and I love being able to rehearse and be with people who also love to rehearse," said Young.
Young said her favourite part of the dramatic process is the fateful opening night, complete with bright lights, the audience and stress.
"I feel a little bit nervous but it gets my adrenaline going," she said.
The drama and theatre arts classes will put on the plays, "Suzie Scrooge" and "Santa Man" respectively on Monday, Dec. 14. Roughly 60 students are involved in both productions, on stage and behind the scenes.
Jordan Stringer is the theatre teacher at Elwood High School. This is his third year of Christmas productions with Elwood.
"The most stressful part is now, the week before, and the night of. My favourite part is the time immediately following the performances or the next day as a class when we sit down and we analyze, we discuss, we critique each other, we critique other groups. That's when you really see the students learning ... It's the follow-up after. It's seeing them actually learn and they get an understanding of how important that group collaboration is," said Stringer.
Stringer described both plays as "very comical. They take quite a bit of liberties with the Christmas season."
He said "Suzie Scrooge" is a spin on the classic tale, "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens. "Santa Man" is another play breaking down greed and manipulation to get to the true meaning of Christmas. Santa Claus turns into his alter-ego superhero character 'Santa Man' to defend Christmas from becoming too corporate and commercial.
Stringer said the shows are great projects for the students to work on during the school term. He said the importance of actually staging a production and going through the process from start to finish is invaluable experience for his students.
"We're teaching theatre, we're teaching fine arts. I always use the comparison of hockey. We don't teach our children what hockey is by letting them read about it in textbooks we let them do it ... We take on the technical aspects of theatre the character, script study, the whole teamwork cooperation collaborative aspect of it, the individual growth, the personal growth. It's so multifaceted. At the end of the day students most times walk away with a sense of value and a sense of personal growth through the course," he said.
The Christmas show will take place at Elwood cafeteria on Monday, Dec. 14 at 7 p.m. There is an admission charge which will be reduced with the donation of a non-perishable food item which will be given to the local food bank. The financial proceeds will support theatre at Elwood high school.
