Prince Charles Secondary School drama teacher Brooke Douma has never been one to shy away from serious subjects, and that hasn’t changed with the upcoming production of Class Dismissed.
The play focuses on Jonathan Banks, a high school English teacher who, tired of his students’ lackadaisical attitude toward their education, decides to hold his five most troublesome students hostage at gunpoint.
“He just gets frustrated because he’s a teacher who gives up his life to teach his kids,” said Douma. “He wants to teach them a lesson. It’s not really about school, it’s about life.”
The play — written by Emmy-nominated producer, director and writer Craig J. Nevius when he was in high school — is a bit more lighthearted than Douma’s 2013’s production of Anne Frank and Me, which offered a gripping reminder of the Holocaust, and the sombre subject matter combined with humorous moments was well suited to the 22 cast members.
“I thought there was a lot of opportunity for the kids character-wise,” said Douma, who is directing. “They get to work with comedy and serious acting.”
Skylar Eyre is playing Banks — his first principle role — and the Grade 11 student has enjoyed the challenge of digging into a character much older and different than he is.
“You really have to make up a past life for the character and figure out what happen in the past and triggers their actions,” he said. “At the beginning, I thought of him as more of an English teacher, but as I’ve created his background, I realized he has a private life. That one of his biggest problems — finding time for his private life.”
That private life is a bit of a rocky one.
“His wife ends up leaving him at the same time, and that pushes him over the edge,” said Eyre. “I think they’ll really enjoy the buildup to him holding the class at gunpoint.”
In addition to regular rehearsals, Eyre has been practicing for up to three hours every night as he prepares. And he’s been keeping a close eye on his teachers during the day.
“I had to watch a lot of my teachers’ behaviour and pick out their characteristics and include that,” he said. “Not that I didn’t have respect for them before, but now I see them as people, not just teachers,” he said.
Class Dismissed runs at 7 p.m. March 5-7 at Prince Charles Theatre. Tickets are $10 for adults and $8 for students/seniors, available at Creative Fix, the PCSS office and cast members.
