On Drama Festival

April 15, 2008 by maureen.ulrich.

This past weekend Lampman School hosted the Region One Drama Festival.

Four schools participated – Lampman, McNaughton High (Moosomin), Oxbow Prairie Heights, and Redvers High.

Moosomin came out on top – as usual. Their immaculate performance of “Two Small Fries to Go” earned them first place in all the major award categories. They will move on to the provincial festival in Regina in early May.

Lampman’s performance of “Excuse Me While I Kiss the Sky” (my play!) was runner-up in most of these categories.

The idea for this play was born on New Years Day. The high school Theatre Arts teacher Chris  and her family came out to our farm for a little “Guitar Hero” and “Monkey Bomb.” Since we had two guitars, we could play some duets, and one of my favourite moments was playing “When You Were Young” with a certain young lady, who also adores The Killers.

The next day I phoned Chris and said, “How about doing a play based on ‘Guitar Hero’ for festival ?” The rest, as they say, is history!

Students in the Theatre Arts program gave their input and helped with the development of characters and plot. They were really sold on the idea of a dream sequence or a play-within-a-play. They also brainstormed names of songs, bands, and game systems.

I think EMWIKTS ranks as my favourite student play – ever! Thanks to the students of Lampman School, it evolved into a spectacular, creative, and highly original production.

During the second half of the play the audience is taken on a trip to Rock ‘n Roll Purgatory, that “little crack in time between F and G, the eternal stage of the warm-up act” (Luc Fender) “where you can end up playing five coloured notes for an eternity” (Callie).

On a deeper level, the play is about the conflict between good and evil. Gabe (representing the archangel Gabriel) battles Luc (Lucifer) Fender – the Reaper. Much of the play also concerns the way that musicians sell their souls. Gabe resists when he is faced with the dilemma of whether or not to compromise his musical talent by learning to play a “Fisher Price toy.”

Christine and the students  stretched their creativity to the limit to recreate elements of the Guitar Hero/Legend game on stage – the synchronized lights on the screen, the audience meter, the rock personas that game players adopt. 

And – truth to tell – we are already thinking about next year’s festival play.

But that’s a topic for another day now, isn’t it?!

Posted in On Student Productions, On Writing | 1 Comment »