Strathmore students take part in one act festival

Times Reporter

 

Anyone who was at Strathmore High School, SHS, on May 5 might have seen some of the students dressed up or getting their make-up done. The students were heading to Airdrie for the evening to take part in the Zone 5 One Act Play Festival at the Bert Church High School. 

“It’s awesome to see what other schools are doing. It’s a great opportunity for our students to see what other high school kids are doing,” said Paula Richardson, SHS drama/dance teacher. 

“Rather than doing a big production this year, I chose to focus on the one act’s, to see if we could get some students to go. I think it’s going to be an awesome experience.”

Richardson said it’s a really good process for the kids because they will see different groups and see what the other high schools are doing. She said often they get to see professional work, but not really much of what the other schools are doing.

Deanne Bertsch also teaches drama/dance at SHS, and had sent a number of her students as well. Her dance and drama students all spent a day at the Mustard Seed in Calgary working with the homeless and wrote their production for the One Act Festival based on their experience. 

“We kind of felt like the homeless people that we met were all there because of bad circumstances and bad decisions, but most of them just had bad luck,” said Bertsch.

We talked a lot about how life is such a fine balance and it’s easy to go off that tightrope of life. So that (was) kind of our metaphor for the show. We’ve called it ‘a balancing act’.”

The students do a show every semester in their classes, but this is the first show she has ever written with them. Bertsch had taken a class called Devising Theatre, and had loved it so much that she wanted to share it with her students. She said some of it has been a little tough, trying to get students to write their own pieces to perform, but said the students have written some beautiful pieces. The students will present their performance to Strathmore on June 5, 6 and 7 at 7 p.m. at the SHS theatre.