By Don Urquhart, Times Chronicle
For Osoyoos Secondary School (OSS) Grade 12 student Amreet Gill, the school’s Drama Club literally changed her life. Bubbly, charming and effusive, Gill says – quite improbably – that she used to be reserved and didn’t actually like talking to people.
“I think theatre, in general, has changed my personality a lot. I think it made me more confident as a person and I’m able to express my feelings and stuff because I was a nervous wreck before this and I did not talk to people.” She laughs as she explains that her friends say, “Amreet just doesn’t stop talking now!”
Amreet and 21 of her fellow Drama Club students on stage and eight behind the scenes ranging from Grade 8-12 are set to debut their latest creative endeavour with a musical theatre production of ‘Into the Woods Jr.’ by Stephen Sondheim. The production will see four shows open to the public at the school’s theatre on June 3, 4 and 5.
The students have been working on the production, which had been scheduled for last year but was like many things, ‘bumped’ by the pandemic, since early February. “We started learning the music in February and we worked on the music for four weeks it just took so long . . . we met at lunch hours and it was a lot more music learning involved with this one,” says Sarah Gilchrist who leads the club and teaches drama, musical theatre and English.
Gilchrist says the students had a choice between this production or a junior version of Chicago. Interestingly there was some hesitancy in doing the famous Chicago musical because many of the students found it to be a bit risqué, even though it’s a ‘toned down’ school-appropriate version of the famous musical.
“A lot of kids brought up the fact that it would be weird for them to perform that in front of an adult audience as sort of children still. I didn’t mention it, they brought it up so they voted for Into the Woods and that’s what we went with,” she says.
But this was not without its challenges Gilchrist notes. The music is very difficult as Sondheim’s music is “discordant in a weird way” she explains. “You think you can hear it and you try to sing with the music and you can’t hear the note, so even for the strongest singers it’s challenging.”
Gill agrees, saying the music was difficult and on top of that, they’ve never done a two-act show before which meant extra memorizing everything.
Gill laughs that she always seems to get the ‘dude’ roles, plays a baker who with his wife are pining for a child but have been cursed by a witch. The story is really about what you wish for, what you want in life and the challenges you go through to get it. Surely an apt tale for high school students soon to navigate the big bold world of their own accord.
Watching the cast go through their final practices the energy, excitement and enthusiasm is infectious. “It’s a great sense of community amongst the students, it brings together kids from all different friend groups, peer groups and they all kind of come together to do the show which is really awesome, so we make our own little community,” Gilchrist observes.
Gill puts her generational spin on it: “I’ve got a lot of friends, I really like the kids in here – it’s like a cult, once you join something you really can’t quit it! Everyone is so accepting and supportive,” she adds.
For Prabhnor Samra a Grade 11 student, there is just no way you’ll find her on stage, other than the final bow at the end of the show and even that is excruciating for her. Where she is comfortable is backstage where she manages the ‘mics’, helps out with costumes, transitions and set pieces going on and off stage and also “a bunch of little miscellaneous tasks along the way that if something goes wrong I usually put out that fire too!” she laughs.
When asked what the most important thing she’s learned from this experience, Samra says: “People respond to good leadership instead of dictatorship. Yelling all the time, that doesn’t work as well as understanding problems and fixing them.” And as for satisfaction: “It’s really rewarding to see the look on the actors’ faces in the final show knowing they worked so hard to achieve it and I’m glad I can help with that.”
For the modest price of $10, it’s probably the best value entertainment you will ever find. And for the students involved, it’s clearly a priceless experience that will stay with them for the rest of their lives.
The production will see four shows performed – June 3 and 4 at 7 p.m. (doors open 6 p.m.) and a Sunday matinée at 2 p.m. (doors open 1 p.m.). Tickets are $10 and available from the school office, Happy Paper Parlor in Osoyoos and if not sold out, at the door.
