Tomorrow night, St. Albert’s Paul Kane High celebrates its theatre arts program with the annual Night of One Acts.
This year’s roster includes four student directed productions. One play, Cinnamon Cookies, is both written and directed by Grade 12 students Dylan Rosychuk and Jeff Punyi. Each of the four plays runs from 30 to 50 minutes in length.
“These plays are edgier than the musical. We tend to push the boundaries in the one-acts. We take current or relevant topics and explore them. Smoking marijuana, suicide and aging — these issues bring out the emotions in students and force them to deal with their own issues. It broadens their perception of life,” says drama teacher Lisa Whitson.
Cinnamon Cookies for instance is a comedy — the only one in the foursome — that peeks at the 1950s’ mother and apple pie American family. “They appear perfect, but as it evolves the issues come out and there’s a surprise twist at the end.”
Coincidentally Lindsay Price wrote the other three plays. All have elements mixing realism with the abstract. Although Whitson offered a heavy selection of plays, students easily envisioned Price’s staging and that influenced their choice.
“They like to choose pieces that challenge them. They like to push boundaries and deal with issues that have a serious tone.”
Grade 12 student Sarah Elder directs Stroke Static, an abstract story of an old man in a nursing home suffering dementia. As he is less able to remember his family, he has flashbacks to his younger days. “It shows how the mind works and how the pieces fit. It’s scary, especially for people who have just gone through it, and it makes you think.”
The team of Jamie Jukna and Keegan Goerz co-direct Bright Blue Mailbox, a drama about a young man who receives a suicide note in his mailbox and becomes obsessed with finding its author.
“This is one that we believe will affect people. We had a suicide prevention worker give a workshop and we will have a counsellor in the audience if anyone gets upset.”
The final production, directed by Mallory Hawkes, is Floating on a Don’t Care Cloud. “A boy goes through a series of stresses and turns to marijuana to help deal with it. His sister, concerned about him, tries to help.”
Whitson strongly believes in the power of theatre giving students a platform to work out problems. “Acting out the angry emotions of character on stage is a safe place to let those emotions out.”
A short 10-minute intermission between each show is planned. During these breaks the school’s rock-pop program plays full-throttle in the cafeteria.
Night of One Acts start at 6 p.m. in the drama room and admission is by donation. Proceeds will go to the Youth Emergency Shelter.
These four productions will also compete in the Zone 2E One-Act Festival running April 15 to 17 at the Timms Centre.
