Edwin Parr Composite School (EPC) is sending two one-act plays to provincials for the first time in Bruce MacDonald’s two-decade teaching career.
Provincials take place May 8–10. in Red Deer, where EPC will send 21 students to perform.
“There are 12 zones in Alberta, so each zone hosts a zone festival, where we performed,” MacDonald said. “If there are more than 16 plays, zones can send two representatives to provincials. We had 20 plays, so we can send two, and both are from EPC, which is pretty cool.”
EPC students and plays received several awards at the Zone 2E One-Act Festival April 26-27 in Edmonton.
“Emily Marsden won Honourable Mention Acting; Lee Morey, Katie Butson and Morgan Lapierre were all awarded Outstanding Achievement Acting awards,” MacDonald said. “The cast and crew of Shuddersome Tales of Poe were recognized for Outstanding Achievement Choral Work.”
EPC had three plays at zones: Shuddersome Tales of Poe and the two that won Best Play, Barefoot in Nightgown by Candlelight and The Scarlet Heart.
“Barefoot in Nightgown by Candlelight is a minimalist theatre,” MacDonald explained. “There is not much set, and it has dark overtones about three girls that live in a boarding house.”
Once a month, the girls play a game, and each is dealt a card.
The girl who receives the queen of spades is the mistress, and the one who is dealt the queen of hearts is the slave, while one becomes the witness.
“As the play goes on, whatever the mistress wants, the slave has to do, and the witness watches,” MacDonald stated of the play written by Don Nigro.
The tasks the girls act out start to escalate.
“It becomes more and more dangerous, and dark,” he said, “until the end where they end up burning down the boarding (house) and killing everyone that is in the boarding house.”
Emily Marsden performs in both plays that are going to provincials and was thrilled by her experience at zones.
“When we performed Barefoot, the feeling was amazing, because I have never had so many real emotions on stage like that before — ones that hadn’t come out in rehearsal, only in the performance.”
Marsden said she has MacDonald to thank for guiding her into acting.
“It has made me a better person all around,” she said. “I am more confident, better able to handle stressful situations, and I feel a lot smarter and worldly after all the interesting, thought-provoking plays Mac has introduced to me.”
Marsden stated she thinks it is awesome to be going to provincials.
“We put countless hours of effort into each performance, and to be recognized and get to perform them again is so wonderful,” she said.
The second play being performed at provincials is The Scarlet Heart written by Allison Williams.
“It is Commedia dell’arte, which is Italian comedy. It is an ancient form of Italian comedy, which is somewhat scripted and somewhat improvised,” MacDonald explained. “It will be neat because it is so different. The Barefoot is really dark and really creepy, and the Commedia play is really, ridiculously funny.”
MacDonald is interested to see how the adjudicators react to seeing three girls starring in both plays.
The Scarlet Heart actor Katherine Butson said she liked the play because it doesn’t follow any specific rules.
“We’re given the opportunity to express ourselves in a way you wouldn’t with a normal genre,” Butson said. “I couldn’t be happier we made it to provincials. The people in this play are phenomenal.”
Marsden agreed with Butson.
“I like performing in both the plays because it pushes my boundaries, especially in The Scarlet Heart with Commedia and the masks, because you need to find different ways of expressing yourself on stage,” she said. “Also, the unstructured, improvised part of it is so fun. It feels like organized chaos.”
