The kindergarten to Grade 7 students at 100 Mile House Elementary School did a fantastic job of presenting Michael L. Goodman’s play, Jack and the Three Sillies, on April 10-11.
Pulling off a comedy is difficult for the most experienced of actors, but these young thespians did it in spades from the opening to the closing scene.
The story is about a man Jack, played by Lydia Kinasewich, who was about to marry Buttons, played by Caitlyn McLean. However, Buttons’ family are entirely too “silly” for Jack’s taste, and instead of marrying his betrothed, he decides to set off on a trip to find a place where people are more sensible.
This turns out to be a hard task because every time he meets new people, they are sillier than the previous group.
Each scene is, indeed, sillier than the prior one and the students play their roles superbly and without a hitch (for the most part). Their facial expression and the tone of their voices add the laughter.
Director Tammy Levesque-Holyk did a wonderful job working with a large cast, but she quickly praises parent directors Janeen L’Heureux and Tricia Gage, and assistant director Grade 7 student Katya Levermann.
Together they molded 50 students into an outstanding cast that worked in clockwork precision.
Levesque-Holyk also heaped praise on the Grade 1-7 students who committed to the project and gave up their lunch hours since mid-January to rehearse.
She adds the kindergarten class helped with decorating the tickets, posters and props. “So all age groups were involved.”
There were many other students involved in making props, tickets and posters, and everything was self-designed, she explained.
“It was great because it was really a school effort. We opened it up to them and they were great.”
Because they had a large cast, the directors changed the script a bit by adding extra wedding party participants and some other roles. However, Levesque-Holyk says they chose a play that already had a lot of characters.
She notes assistant director Levermann learned all the lines during the rehearsals because she was a backup for all of the roles and that helped the rehearsals roll along because someone was always missing. In the end, she did have to play one of the parts.
“The kids really put it all together in the end and they were super impressive.”
