Lampman School consistently produces high quality theatre productions. Although this year's fall production was a little smaller in size than usual, the students were still able to deliver two memorable performances on Dec. 4, 5, and 6.
The first play, titled “The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds,” was an extremely powerful piece about mental illness and the struggle of a family to live.
Beatrice, a divorcee, mother of two and alcoholic, was played by Sam Paxman. She is unhappy with her life, having to face numerous difficulties throughout it. Facing failures in her life, she does remain to hold onto dreams, her most recent one being to own a tea house.
As the story unfolds we are introduced to Tillie, played by Cassidy Roy, who is extremely intelligent. Beatrice's youngest daughter, Tillie, focuses on her school work and goes on to win a science fair focused on the effects of radiation on marigolds.
Beatrice has difficulties accepting the accomplishments of her daughter and when Ruth, played by Adrianna Raynard, Beatrice's eldest, snaps at her mother for not allowing Ruth to accompany Beatrice and Tillie to the competition. This brings up the cruel nickname, Betty the Loon, from high school, which sets Beatrice off.
She sends the girls to the competition and decides to get her house ready to turn into a tea house. Beatrice calmly cleans off tables and prepares the house. Looking to her daughter's rabbit, Peter, she had threatened numerous times to kill, she goes through with it in the end because it’s unsanitary to have a rabbit in a tea house.
Her daughters come home and are told of the changes in the house. Ruth is told to look in her room for Peter and he is found wrapped in a towel to be buried in the morning. It is devastating to Ruth, while Tillie is also affected she handles the news of her beloved rabbit vowing to bury Peter in the morning, as Beatrice simply continues readying the home to open as a tea house.
“I try to teach the kids acting techniques,” Christine Thornton, Lampman School's drama teacher explained. “I've had these ones for five years and we've performed some challenging pieces, not the usual fair pieces that you'd have.”
“This one was a Pulitzer prize-winning play; it's a difficult piece to perform because of the subject matter. We actually re-blocked scenes the other day, just before performing the scene where Beatrice is putting table cloths down at the end. Sam used to play that with anger, but we decided that it should be a calmer, more introspective than anger, that Beatrice needs her next dream or she wouldn't be able to survive.”
This production also saw Carley Greening perform the role of Nanny, an elderly woman Beatrice is taking care of, and an appearance by Morgan Jones who played Janice Vickery, a competitor in the science competition.
The second performance gave Greening and Jones larger roles. Greening took to the stage as Gail and Jones as Margie in “Drivers' Test,” a hysterical comedy that had the crowd laughing through the entire performance.
Gail, a sophomore in high school, meets Margie, the driver instructor. Margie and Gail bond quickly in the car, named George, and begin the examination.
Along the way Margie teaches Gail important life lessons and if Gail doesn't agree, Margie sprays her with a bottle of water.
At one point Margie simulates a real life situation, pretending to be two young children bickering and fighting in the car. Margie pushes Gail to speed along the highway, garnering the attention of the police, who then chase the pair. Gail eludes them, but frets about her future and about going to jail because of her driving.
As they continue the test after Gail's short meltdown, Margie eventually convinces Gail to parallel park with her eyes closed. At first Gail refuses, but is finally convinced that after trying four times and failing to park with eyes open she closed them. As inspiring music plays, the audience was hopeful for Gail, until the sounds of cars crunching confirmed, driving with your eyes closed is a bad idea.
They run from the scene and arrive back to SGI. Having done everything Margie asked, Gail is sure she has passed. Her mark, however, was four percent; Gail had failed every stage of the test with notes of the instructor stating that she was able to be negatively influenced by other people in the vehicle, Gail would have to retake the test.
The two very different performances the evening of Dec. 6 were both extremely well performed and enjoyed.
Thornton explained: “They're expected to act as professionally as they can and these guys do. Kids will rise to the expectations you set out for them; they always do.”
This was Thornton's 17th show directed in Lampman. Usually the fall performance has students from Oxbow and Estevan join in, this year it remained a small production. The spring production is also a smaller production, limited to students of Lampman.
Thornton not only encourages the actors on stage, but was also very complimentary of the crew including students and community volunteers.
The crew included Darian Freeden (Stage Manager and Lighting for both productions), K'Lyn Duttenhoffer (Sound Design/Operator for both productions and Social Media/Multi Media for the first one), Taylor Grimes (Costume Manager for both), Hannah Stinson (Props/Backstage Manager for both), Ashley Kerslake (Props Builder for the first production), Angel Smith (Make-up for the first production), and Stan and Marilyn Zimmerman (Sets for both) with Dale and Daniel Kelly (Sets for the first production).
In the spring, Thornton also told The Observer she is excited for Paxman to direct one of the productions they will compete with in the spring. Though unsure of the pieces they will be using, Thornton is very confident in the abilities of her students.
Thornton was extremely pleased with her students and explained that it is nice to have a receptive audience, but that as long as the kids do well that's most important: “Not everyone in the audience or adjudicators will always see the performance the same way we do and might not like it, but the kids know themselves if they've done a good job and that's more important in theatre.”
