Palace dysfunction
Pictou Academy set to present Haphazardly Ever After: The Musical
Take a royal therapist and some princes and princesses who bicker constantly and you have the makings of a fun musical
Students at Pictou Academy are saving up a hilarious royal tale about a king and queen desperate to sort out their utterly obnoxious and bratty offspring.
Enter the royal therapist, who must somehow stop the princes’ and princesses’ constant bickering without being fed to the pet dragon, and you have the play known as Haphazardly Ever After: The Musical.
“Each time though it fails, until we decide to make our own fairy tale and that goes horribly wrong,” said Grade 12 student Peyton Briand, who plays Queen Mildred.
Briand and her fellow actors and actresses will be performing their show on March 7 and 8 at the deCoste Performing Arts Centre in Pictou after months of rehearsals.
For Briand, the play is a culmination of sorts for her school acting career, which began in Grade 10 when teacher Shelley MacPherson invited her to join the drama club.
Deciding she wanted something to do, Briand signed up for the drama club and nearly three years later, her teacher MacPherson is directing Haphazardly Ever After.
“I fell in love with it after my first audition,” said Briand.
MacPherson said the play was provided to her club through the Pioneer Drama Service in Colorado and she chose it based on its universal appeal.
“We picked this musical because we’re always looking for something that is really funny and also is entertaining to all ages because we do school matinees every year,” said MacPherson.
She has about 25 students in grades 9 to 12 involved in the play and they have been practising for about four months.
The crew will be moving into the deCoste Centre on Sunday, ahead of their two show nights next week.
Showtime for Haphazardly Ever After on both March 7 and 8 is at 7:30 p.m. Please call 902-4858848 or visit decostecentre.ca for tickets and more information.