By Don Urquhart, Times Chronicle
Now celebrating its 10th anniversary, the Osoyoos Secondary School (OSS) Drama Club has come a long way over the past decade as is evident by its latest production, Chicago.
In a departure from more “family-friendly” themes like Beauty and the Beast or Aladdin for instance, this latest production follows this spring’s production of Into the Woods that steered the Drama Club into the deep musical waters of Stephen Sondheim.
Although Chicago doesn’t delve into quite the same musical complexity, it is unique for the young budding OSS actors with an edgy turn into the world of 1920s Chicago. This is a step back into a world of corruption, alcohol, murder, and adultery, all vibrantly woven with the distinctive aural threads of the era’s jazz music.
For those unfamiliar with the musical, it debuted in New York’s West End in 1979, where it ran for 600 performances. Chicago was revived on Broadway in 1996 and became the second longest-running show behind The Phantom of the Opera.
If that doesn’t strike a chord, perhaps the 2002 Oscar-award-winning movie of the same name featuring Catherine Zeta-Jones, Renée Zellweger, Richard Gere, Queen Latifah, and others, might just inspire recognition.
Speaking to the Times Chronicle about the production Sarah Gilchrist who leads the club and teaches drama, musical theatre, and English at OSS, laughs that most of the Drama Club’s teenagers – well, except for the “musical geeks” – had never heard of the production. “But once they saw the movie, it was a done deal,” she says.
After a summer of mulling the various options – which basically consisted of considering who can fill the shoes of the various characters (it is a small school after all) – Gilchrist decided to offer it up as one of the options for this school year’s production.
“The high school version of the production does of course revolve around adult themes but the language and any overtly sexual themes are toned down, Gilchrist says.” In fact, they don’t even use any gun props in the production, opting instead to simply use their hands as mock guns.
And because of the slightly edgier storyline, she says that the normal performances for Osoyoos Elementary School students were not held this year.
While her own two children – aged seven and nine – will be going to the show, Gilchrist says she wanted to leave it up to the parents to decide whether it was appropriate for their own children.
“It’s very camp,” she says. “The style of the music is very vaudeville so it’s over the top and the songs are all jazz influenced because it’s set in the 1920s. It’s just a lot of fun so I think families can really enjoy it,” she said, adding that probably many of the older crowd would know the musical.
Like all of the Drama Club’s productions, a huge amount of work goes into it. From costumes to choreography, to stage props, the list goes on. When she first started at the school a decade ago, Gilchrist says the money was so tight that she wrote the productions herself, basically musical revues.
With fundraising and grants, the Drama Club productions eventually reached a stage where ticket sales from one production took care of preparations for the next. But this glosses over the enormous volunteer effort – parents, teachers, students, and members of the community – that takes place largely out of sight. It is said that it takes a village to raise a child, but in this case, it’s that same village that gets these productions off the ground.
From the school’s shop teacher Boyd Turnbull and his students who build all-important props, to the art students who paint backgrounds and props, and those interested in fashion design working on costumes.
“So we’ve got kids who would never ordinarily touch drama with a 10-foot pole there in the theatre building sets and then I get students from art class, who again would never be on stage but they’re willing to come and paint a backdrop or paint some of the props and they all get a sense of accomplishment being part of the creative activity,” she said.
The choreography is another gargantuan task, handled largely by Madeline Bayliss, whom Gilchrist says has a true passion for the art.
And in a serendipitous turn, Leanne Scott from MOVE Therapies assisted on the choreography because in her earlier life she was a professional dancer who actually performed in the musical. “She was an amazing find!” Gilchrist laughs.
A huge shoutout also went to the Laidlaw clan with Grade 9 student Madeline Laidlaw, her mom and her grandma taking on the entire task of wardrobe creation. “They have been amazing this year in terms of just taking that on and doing all the costumes for the show.”
“What I love about it is just how huge it is. It draws in 50 people and our school is only 200 so that’s a quarter of the school population involved in this creative pursuit that we wouldn’t normally have in a small school, that’s my favourite part,” Gilchrist says.
“It’s just cool to see kids who wouldn’t otherwise, ever be exposed to this kind of thing because we are a small town. It’s just cool for them to be involved and it lights a fire inside them that wasn’t there before,” she said. This will in many cases carry forward in their adult lives, even if not professionally, she added.
This production features kids from Grades 8 through 12 but she notes there is a big group of Grade 12s involved that will graduate this year. “I’m going to be super sad to lose this group because I’ve been able to develop them over the last five years and we’re losing a lot of technical people also.
“So it’s kind of a bittersweet show for me because I’m gonna have to say goodbye to a lot of kids. I’ve gotten to know them over the years, I really love working with them.”
And speaking of the Grade 12s, here at the Times Chronicle we are pretty thrilled that our Work Experience student and Drama Club stalwart, Vriti Bakshi, is not only performing in this production but she’s playing the role of a reporter.
As it turns out it was pure coincidence. Gilchrist says that at the time she was thinking about casting she didn’t realize that Bakshi had started at the paper.
Because it’s the final season for all the Grade 12s she tries to think about, “what is it that they’ve already had a chance to do, and what haven’t they had an opportunity to try?”
“What can stretch them a little bit, but not too much because you still want it to fit the character in the musical. And I just thought she just has a super sparkly character and I know she really can pull the role off very well.”
The production will see four shows performed at the OSS Community Theatre from Dec. 7-10 at 7 p.m. (doors open 6 p.m.). Tickets are $12 and available at the OSS Office and the Happy Paper Parlor just off Main St. at 7602 85 St, Osoyoos.
Kenton Gilchrist photos
