Local students represent SHS at provincials

By Miriam Ostermann, Associate Editor

Strathmore High School (SHS) recently acquired the latest banner to hang in its halls, but it wasn’t in recognition for athletics.
Seven Grade 11 and 12 drama students recently took their talent and a 45-minute long dramatic comedy, This Side of Heaven, written by Don Zolidis, to the Zone 5 One Act Drama Festival in Okotoks.
George Crawford, Jordan Putman, Brittany Anger, Jessyka Perkin, Jaiden Straub, Kayleen Chase and Reign Dyer competed against 19 other acts during the three-day festival at the end of April, and walked away with two honourable mentions in acting for Crawford and Putman while grasping one of two golden tickets to the Provincial Festival 2018 in Red Deer earlier this month.
“This is such a strong sports-oriented school and they always get recognized for winning banners and doing this and doing that, and it was good for the theatre students to feel like they got some recognition in that regard,” said Paula Richardson, one of the two drama teachers at SHS who coached the group and accompanied them to provincials.
“They always feel like they’re overlooked, underappreciated I guess, and this was something where they really felt appreciated and valued.”
For the past seven weeks, the students, who were participating in the acting gig as an extracurricular activity outside of regular classroom hours, sought every opportunity available to rehearse, including lunch hours and time after school while working around part time jobs and family obligations. The hard work paid off when the local products stood inside the walls of the Red Deer College theatre to showcase their work at the Provincial Festival stage among a total of 18 productions. The Provincial Festival is recognized as a celebration of outstanding work from across Alberta, rather than a competition.
From May 3-5, the students attended workshops taught by professionals in the theatre world, perfected their art and presented their acts. Grade 12 student Jordan Putman walked away with the best comedic actor award for her portrayal of Fever, a girl who will forever have a malformed femur and a limp as a result of falling from a three-storey balcony after leaning against a loose rail. Grade 11 student George Crawford received the same award for his performance as Chase, a 17-year-old boy destined to spend the rest of his life wheelchair bound, after falling asleep at the wheel caused a car accident that left him paralyzed from the waist down. The two meet in rehab and find love and hope for the future.
“Both of them have just a natural ability of comedic timing and that’s something that you can’t teach; you either have it or you don’t,” said Richardson. “They’re also dating in the real world, and they fall in love in the play, so the connection between them was very honest and very believable.”
Strathmore also performed a second play at zones titled, Creating a Dream – a collective piece written and directed by SHS drama teacher Deanne Bertsch. While it wasn’t selected for provincials, it won best original work and best production design.