Members of the Estevan Comprehensive School (ECS) drama club had an impressive showing at the Saskatchewan Drama Association’s Regional Festival in Yorkton on the weekend.
Evanne Wilhelm, who is a choral and drama instructor at the school, said they returned from Yorkton with numerous awards for their performance of the historical drama 937 by Don Zolidis, which tells the story of an ocean liner, the SS St. Louis, transporting 937 Jewish refugees out of the hands of Nazism to Havana, Cuba
“At the end of our performance the crowd rose to their feet immediately and gave a raucous standing ovation,” said Wilhelm. “It was an unbelievable feeling. We were the only group to receive a standing ovation this weekend.”
Their passion and exemplary participation won ECS the award for the Spirit of the Festival for being the school that best embodied what drama festival is all about.
ECS also received two of the three biggest awards of the festival: best overall visual production and best overall technical production.
Tyler Knibbs received the Bob Hinitt Award given to the one student in the festival exhibiting the most excellence in technical theatre.
Awards of merit for acting were also chosen by the judges for each school that participated, and Ciara Dayman and Carter Porter were recognized for ECS.
Finally, Nathan Littlefield was chosen by 937’s directors for the Cheer Award for the group, for being the student that without whom the production would not have been the same.
ECS finished second for the best overall production award, trailing only Yorkton Sacred Heart. The Yorkton entry will advance to the provincial drama festival.
Members of the crew for 937 were Knibbs, Katie Wempe and Cole McCaskill.
Dayman, Porter, Littlefield, Levi Stepp, Megan Zemlak, Angelle Avery, Randy Fast, Brayden Renkas, Victoria Beahm, Jeremy Littlefield, Mckenna Van De Woestyne, Jordyn Meshke, Parker Lavoie, Katie Ostrander, Macie Hall and Faith Haberstock were in the cast.
Alumni student directors were Abby Hanna and Tayler Olver.
