by Tyson Fraleigh
The dramatic arts have always been a major part of CKSS. Acting, music, and visual art have always had a strong grip on students, allowing opportunities for dramatic clubs and extracurricular activities. One of the most well-known dramatic clubs at CK is the SEARS Drama Festival.
The SEARS Drama Festival is an annual acting competition where schools compete against each other by performing one act, fifty minute plays. Two winners are chosen to go on to compete with winners all around Ontario. This year, the SEARS team is doing the student written play ‘The People You Meet When Out And About’. It is about seven strangers in the 1940’s who work together to deal with their personal demons.
Mrs. St. Peter-Catton has been an administrator for the SEARS Drama Festival for the past eleven years, and is very excited for this year’s performance.
“I am really excited to have a student-written production because we have not done one here at CK for around ten years. It feels to me by doing that, it’s giving more ownership to the students because now it is not just student-directed, but also student-written. This year we have a lot of new people to our tech team, as well as to SEARS. It’s been neat to watch them develop in the process as well.”
Hannah Turner, a grade nine at CKSS this year, had lots to say about Sears this year.
“This year, I enjoyed the fact that it is more serious, but at the same time you’re allowed to have fun with it.” Hannah said, “For SEARS, you’re more individual in your acting, so it’s more of an independent thing, which was a nice change.”
Noah Perritt, a three-year veteran of the SEARS Drama Festival, has seen how the power of the play has shifted from teacher-run to student-run.
“It’s a bit more student-run this year for sure. The collaboration elements are still there, but in recent years, the student directors hadn’t played as much of a part as opposed to the teachers. This year, the student directors dictated everything instead of the teachers. The biggest part there is that there are two directors instead of one, so it allows them to work more with each other.”
The two directors, Nicholas Zingone and Abigail Nydam, have been working with the cast and script since late October, and have had a great time working with everyone.
“It’s coming along well.” Nicholas began, “It has been amazing to watch how the actors have grown from their auditions to today. It has been a great experience.”
Abigail was also very excited about the project.
“It’s been very interesting seeing how the visions of the crew, the actors, the writer and my co-director and I have come together to our final product, and I think people are going to love it.”
The Chatham Kent Secondary School performance will be on February 25th at the Cultural Centre. Tickets will be available at the door. Break a leg SEARS team!
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