SCI drama team explores deep themes in school play
The Stayner Collegiate Institute (SCI) drama team is pumped about their chances, heading into the upcoming regional competition. The team was one of four chosen at the recent Georgian Bay area competition to advance to the National Theatre School Regional Finals in Cambridge April 9-12. The goal is to progress to the provincial showcase in Gananoque later this spring.
The troupe advanced to regionals last year also, where adjudicators encouraged them to work harder on character development and connecting with the audience. They took that advice to heart and are ready with their production of Tracks by Peter Tarsi, a one-act play based in a dirty subway station, in which a random collection of people including a businessman, a lawyer, and a pair of high school students meet and discover they are all dead. They are waiting on a train to heaven or perhaps hell, leading them to reflect upon their lives, recalling past deeds of which they are not proud.
The team of 12 actors and six support personnel started preparing early in the school year, with teacher- advisor Frank Cunsolo. They read dozens of plays, looking for one that spoke to them, and would impact their audience. In the end, Cunsolo was the only one who didn’t choose this play and he was overruled.
Benjamin Chester, who portrays a professor says the play explores some deep metaphorical themes around death and morality.
“You can’t judge a person by their biggest success or their biggest failure,” said Chester. “No matter what struggles you have faced and mistakes you have made, you need to let go of the past and move forward.”
Elli Cloutier who plays “the new girl,” says the underlying message is one of acceptance.
As the competition draws closer the troupe has bumped rehearsals up to three times a week. They meet on the stage at SCI, often having to compete with the sounds of a volleyball practice in the adjacent gym.
SCI is one of the smaller schools involved in the competition but Chester says they have a solid show which they are very proud of. Some of the larger schools have bigger budgets for sets, costumes and special effects but the SCI crew leveraged the school’s construction program, finding a way for the arts and construction students to work together.
This is the fourth production the drama team has staged since the pandemic, and the largest yet in terms of cast, sets and costuming.
Bonnie MacPherson photo: The Stayner Collegiate Institute drama team rehearses Tracks, set in a subway station.
