The Medstead School Drama Club competed at the Saskatchewan Drama Association Region 8 Festival in Turtleford on April 7.
The festival itself occurred between April 6 and April 8 and hosted 11 schools performing 12 plays. The winner of the festival proceeds to Regina to compete in the provincial competition.
Medstead’s Drama Club put on a heart-wrenching rendition of the play Free, written by Canadian playwright Lindsay Price. The club boasts a membership of 27 students of which 20 are stage front and seven work backstage.
In preparation for the presentation in Turtleford, the school gymnasium was opened to the public April 1 for a dress rehearsal. More than 40 locals comprised of parents, volunteers and local supporters gathered to watch a great show of work ethic and school spirit coming together.
Reagen Shiell who played Jack, one of two main characters, was the festival’s runner up for best actor. Shiell said, “It was fun. It took lots of practice. It was a very young group, lots of first and second years.”
The play is about a starving village that is presented with a cart of free food. The human struggle is detailed as the community members are unable to divvy up the food. A stranger comes into town to offer services to divide the nutrition equitably amongst the members of the area. As the stranger reviews the applications, the hungry villagers come one by one through the night and steal food from the cart. Justifications are lent to their actions as being for their children or certainty that they would never be offered a fair share upon conclusion of the review.
The play ends with the awareness that village members are falling ill and the shocking realization that similar events had transpired one settlement over. That town expired due to what we learned to be food poisoned by the stranger. The play fades out to the tragic note of awareness that the village depicted in the play is to meet its demise as well.
With reference to this, Asha Pederson, a third year veteran of the drama club, stated, “It is definitely one of my favourites. One of the most serious plays we’ve ever done.”
One of the three directors, Chris Weber, who was in charge of technology and set design stated as to the moral of the story, “Everyone is basically the same, for good or for bad. With humanity, in general, there is a lot of selfishness. If everyone was more generous it would be a better world.”
Weber added, “We are really excited about it. We managed to produce this in one month’s time.”
The pride of the production was not only in the fantastic acting of the students, but in the set design done entirely by the drama club members. Some pieces were taken from the props department and there were a lot of local donations and volunteer hours that went into the production.
Proudly, Medstead took away awards for the props. In addition to the award winning set, the student sound technician won for sound abilities. A further honour was given by way of the Good Actress Award presented to the actress who portrayed Mrs. Steel.
In an overall successful endeavour, the students from Medstead had an opportunity to learn more about the world of competitive drama, socialize with fellow students from many towns throughout Region 8 and learn the fruits of the labours of passion and effort. As the play taught us, generosity and community spirit truly go a long way, something with which the Medstead Drama Club is proudly familiar.
The award winning set for the Medstead School Drama Club’s Presentation of Free designed and created by students and club members. Photo by Corrina Murdoch
