The art of theatre has been a force in entertainment for hundreds of years. From Shakespeare’s dense language to Edward Albee’s out-there style, something about people prancing about on a stage has enthralled the general public.
Naturally, schools have long taken advantage of this, providing the avenue for aspiring actors to exhibit their skills. School plays are a hallowed tradition, sitting right beside “tests” and “track and field days” as things the education system holds close to its heart.
One such play, presumably conceived after repeated readings of fairy tales while watching Oprah, is “The Ever After,” a musical about the aftermaths of the stories we all know and tolerate.
Presented by the Nakusp Secondary School’s musical theatre class, headed by Tessa Wiseman and Patrick MacGibbon, and originally written by a “Nathan Hartswick“ the play lampooned the conventions of all those stories with princesses and frogs.
Taking place 20 years later and hosted by the aggravatingly-named Shayla and Sheila Lizzie Jesse Donatello Griffin (Played by Adriel Goodman and Morgan Leontowicz, respectively), the play featured such famous characters as Cinderella (Ellen Weatherhead) and Snow White (Kitluha Brautigam).
These characters are on the show to make up with their nemeses, or just confess. Cinderella’s evil stepsisters, for example, wanted to get in their step-sibling’s good graces for a free ride on her dresstails. Despite the rather worn-out cliché, the setting works well, helped by the good performances of all involved.
Being a musical, the play had a tendency to segue into song every few minutes, something the author is not usually fond of.
Unlike said author, though, all participants could actually sing rather well. A particularly good song was between the Mirror on the Wall (Margaret Andrews) and the Evil Queen (Kylie Gardner).
Really, the musical was extremely well done for one put on by a school, and besides a few flubbed lines on the first night, was error-free.
“Error-free” could describe the supper as well. Spaghetti will never blow anyone’s mind, but it was good, and that’s about all you can ask for when the cooks have to serve a full house. The band managed to make the school’s lunchroom feel like a far classier establishment, as well.
The author has something to confess. He’s never particularly liked plays or musicals. The rather flowery and overly poetic language of Shakespeare seems more aggravating and silly than laudable, and the tendency of musicals to interrupt the plot with Scottish Country Dancing is a bit odd, to say the least. This musical, though, was different. Why?
Well, probably because the author knows a lot of the participants personally. It’s easy to make fun of some poor random sap singing his heart out about fiddling on the roof, but when it’s your friends that are doing so, you tend to take a bit more notice of their effort.
Whether it was singing about their inabilities to fit their feet into glass slippers or selling crowns with buckets in them (Haha, Kyle), the musical theatre class and all who helped them put a lot of effort into making a good show; and indeed they did.