High school drama production brings magic of Mary Poppins to life
The magical story of a nanny that seemingly appears from out of the air to bring cheer and happiness to a dysfunctional family is coming to life in a spectacular fall production by the Swift Current Comprehensive High School (SCCHS) Fine Arts department.
Five performances of the musical Mary Poppins, based on the successful Broadway production of the popular 1964 Walt Disney film, take place in the SCCHS cafeteria from Nov. 29 to Dec. 2. There is an evening performance on each day, starting at 7 p.m., as well as a matinee performance at 2 p.m. on Dec. 2. It is directed by Fine Arts teachers Shaun Spence and Nancy Bridal.
According to Spence it is a large production involving about 120 people, both students and some community members. This is probably an extra 50 to 60 people compared to a regular production.
“We have a pretty large program right now,” he said. “So it was easy to do a show of this size and we also have some pretty talented singers. So we were willing to bite off something just a bit more challenging than usual, which was nice.”
Spence and Bridal focused on the acting and theatre arts components of the production. They were supported by music teachers Brianna Dennehy, the choral director, and Aaron Thingelstad, the band director. An exciting feature of this production is the live music performance by a pit band of around 18 musicians under the direction of Thingelstad.
“We have students in the pit band plus we also have community members,” Spence noted. “Some are past students and some are just other people involved from the community as well.”
The integration of all the different elements of this production took long hours of planning, preparation and rehearsal.
“Repetition is our friend,” he said. “We were ahead of the game this year, which is nice. For a production this size we usually start a few weeks later in the school year. We started doing auditions already in spring and our mains had their music partway through August. So we hit the ground running when it came to the school year. It sped us up a little bit, which allowed us to refine the more technical elements.”
There are various magical elements involved in Mary Poppins, especially with regard to the behaviour of the nanny, which presented a challenge during the creation of this high school production
“It’s a very surreal show and the laws of physics don’t necessarily apply,” he said. “So we have her pulling things out of places that wouldn’t necessarily fit. Unfortunately, we can’t fly her, but we have to do the illusion of flying. We have to build as much as we can into those magical elements.”
They followed a novel approach to finding solutions for these production challenges by involving students in the process.
“We’ve been leaning a lot into our theatre arts group by posing a challenge, trying to build and expand with that and thinking about how they might solve that in a creative way,” he said. “We started them off with brainstorm sessions. They may not know exactly how to do it, but they’ll pitch some ideas and then we workshopped it for a little bit. Then we often farmed it out to specific students. Some
community members have been helping out as well.”
Grade 11 student Charlotte Kochan plays the role of Michael Banks, the young boy in the family. She felt the hardest part of her role is to portray the reactions of the character.
“He’s so emotional and expressive, and it’s difficult to pinpoint each of these emotions in every part of the play,” Kochan noted. “You have to add a lot of mischief into your actions and always think about how a child would be in a situation.”
She has been involved in four previous SCCHS drama productions since Grade 9 and enjoys acting. People are usually surprised to hear she is involved with drama, because she is a quiet person.
“I think it really helped me find my voice,” she said. “The people are so much fun to work with and I just I love playing a character, because you really get to embody the person.”
Her favourite part of being involved with the drama group at the school is the sense of a team spirit.
“It’s just always a highlight of my day,” she said. “You grow so close to the people and it’s hard when they graduate, but I’ve made so many friends and the people have just been amazing.”
She said the Mary Poppins production has involved a lot of intense effort compared to aprevious drama productions.
“This production is just a whole different bucket of fish,” she said. “I’ve really improved my singing through the work I’ve done with Miss Dennehy and the other people around me. And I’ve put in a lot more hours than I have in other shows outside of the rehearsal times to touch up on those fine details. It’s a lot more commitment, but it’s worth it.”
Grade 11 student Ezra Lloyd plays the role of Bert, the chimney sweep. He has been a member of the drama club since the start of Grade 10 and have performed in two previous productions.
“I’ve never been a part of anything to this scale,” he said about this production.
He has enjoyed taking on the distinctive role of the chimney sweep, which required him to work hard on improving his dancing. He is already an experienced singer as a member of three different
choral ensembles at the school.
“It’s definitely the most fun I’ve ever had,” he said about the role of Bert. “It’s
just the actions and the movements and the song. It just has so much life and it’s the best.”