Above: From left: MCHS student actors Avery Pelletier, Casper McClain, and Bri Farough rehearse a scene from Where the Sky Meets the Sea, as Director Dalice Brown observes. – Stephen Dafoe Photo
by Stephen Dafoe
Morinville Community High School is returning to the One-Act Festival this spring with two student-directed shows, and area residents will have a sneak peek opportunity. The school will host a Friends and Family Night of One Acts on Saturday, Apr. 13, at 7:30 p.m. to gather feedback before the upcoming competition.
The two one-act plays are Booby Trap, directed by Jillian Andrews, and Where the Sky Meets the Sea, directed by Dalice Brown.
Booby Trap, the first of the one-act plays to run on Apr. 13, is a 2001 play by playwright Ed Monk.
“It’s about a soldier who sits on a landmine and deals with the psychological effect of knowing that you’re going to die,” said MCHS Drama Teacher Vanessa King. “It’s flashbacks from his life and predictions for the future. His peers are trying to figure out what to do next.”
The second performance is Where the Sky Meets the Sea by playwright Mandy Conner.
“It’s Greek mythology-based,” King said of the one-act. “It’s five Greek children stuck in a type of purgatory, trying to figure out how to appease the gods.”
King said she knew who the directors would be before they knew what the shows would be, as both students had expressed interest in directing.
“Dalice competed at the festival last year and had a great experience, and Jill is very ambitious and wanted to give it a go,” King said. “So the two of them were tasked with finding a show that spoke to them. They both read a tonne of shows and it’s not really surprising that they came up with the shows that they came up with.”
Auditions for the two student-run shows were in February. The students rehearse every day after school, and there have been some weekend rehearsals.
Each show is approximately 35 minutes long. The first show will run at 7:30 p.m. and the second at 8 p.m.
However, King is particularly excited about Fool’s Gold: The Musical, a third and special act for the evening of one-acts.
Former MCHS student Daphne Charrois graduated in 2019 and trained to be an actor in New York before working as a singer in Europe for the past year.
Charrois wrote the musical about the Gold Rush in the Yukon over the past year, which will be performed at the Edmonton Fringe Festival this summer.
King said that prior to holding auditions and solidifying the script, they wanted to do a public reading to get fresh perspectives and feedback from the community.
“The panel of actors that we’ve gathered to read the script are all MCHS theatre alumni reaching back to 2014,” King said. “We’re very excited to share this experience with past and present MCHS theatre enthusiasts.”
Tickets for the three plays are $10 and available at the door. Advance tickets are not available.
King is hoping to fill the seats at MCHS on Apr. 13.
“At MCHS, we have so much fun in the theatre, and these kids are working so hard that it is not something you want to miss out on,” King said. “They continually raise the bar. This group is so exciting and passionate. These shows are going to be amazing.”
The student-run plays will compete in a theatre competition in Westlock on Apr. 18 and 19. MCHS will compete against seven other schools.
Directors will use audience feedback from the Apr. 13 performances to tweak things ahead of the two-day competition.
More information about Fool’s Gold the Musical is online at foolsgoldthemusical.com.
From left: MCHS students Katelynn Engel and Amy Begg rehearse Booby Trap, one of the two one-act plays taking to the MCHS stage on Saturday, Apr. 13. – Stephen Dafoe Photo
