Richmond Regional plans to livestream annual Remembrance Day play

Richmond Regional High School is hosting its annual Remembrance Day play, despite losing weeks of preparation time due to health and safety measures brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The school’s director, writer and history teacher, Lori Cloutier, has been hard at work with a dedicated group of Secondary 5 drama students. She aims to get the play up and running for the beginning of December; it normally happens in November.

According to Cloutier, she knew the play was going to be pushed back because of the ongoing pandemic. The safety protocols established by Quebec’s health authority wouldn’t allow for the students to rehearse in the same room, unless they were in a bubble.

“I knew I wasn’t going to make it on time, nobody expects everything to be perfect and I think that people will understand why it’s late this year,” said Cloutier. “As long as we remember and celebrate, I think that’s the most important thing.”

The play, titled ‘Canada: Beginning to End’, celebrates the 75th anniversary of the conclusion of the Second World War. When writing the script, Cloutier focused on telling stories of Canadians in Italy, Netherlands and the Hong Kong war veterans.

With a limited capacity in the auditorium, the school plans to livestream the play for its audience living at the Wales Home, a seniors’ residence in the Eastern Townships, and for Royal Canadian Legion members unable to attend in person.

Although she has no formal drama experience, Cloutier has been running the Remembrance Day play for over 10 years alongside Corinne Bouchard, another teacher at Richmond Regional. They collaborate on everything, from writing to directing.

The school pours a lot of effort into celebrating Remembrance Day, but at one point there was no drama teacher, Cloutier explained. The school always puts on a play to commemorate Canadian soldiers in some way, so she decided to take on the annual event.

“It was like that when I first came here, I was really impressed and so to me it’s important to carry on that tradition and I’ve kind of fallen into the drama part and I just love it,” Cloutier said.

Whenever she starts planning and rehearsing the play with her students, she is always surprised by how shocked they are by the material. They almost don’t believe it sometimes, Cloutier said, so she always needs to provide more context behind the play.

The most important part about it, Cloutier reflected, is to keep the stories and memories of Canada’s soldiers alive. She believes the best way to do this is through history and storytelling, as it impacts everybody, no matter their age.

“When they’ve worked with it, they know the story, so I know they learn it really well because they’re doing it, but then the kids that get to see it they understand it better too,” said Cloutier.

Richmond Regional also has many other events going on in November, she added. The school runs a poster contest through the legion for students in all grades. There’s also a photography project, which has been posted around the building.

The school also posted pictures of the students who visited the site of the Battle of Vimy Ridge for the 100th anniversary on a television in the lobby area, Cloutier mentioned. These are all things that set Richmond apart when it comes to celebrating Remembrance Day, she said.

“What a lot of schools are doing is a few little discussions, an art project, something like that, a minute of silence and it’s over. I don’t think kids get enough information that way,” Cloutier concluded.