By Joel van der Veen
DAVIDSON — Hanley’s drama club took an audience on a trip to the moon in one of the plays featured in a recent high school drama festival in Davidson.
“One Giant Leap” was performed by the students of Hanley Composite School on Saturday, April 18, as one of five plays in the Saskatchewan Drama Association’s Region 6 Drama Festival, hosted by Davidson School on Friday and Saturday.
The only locally-penned play performed in the festival, it told the story of two elderly women banished to the moon in the year 2093 as the start of an experimental colony, and their encounter with the lunar locals they meet there.
One of the women, Patience (Taylor Seymour), meets a friendly alien, Lestock (Lauren Griffin) and decides to take her back home, though her roommate, Zelma (Hannah Fehr), is reluctant to allow the creature in.
The other aliens — Markinch (Nicola Classen), Bulyea (Lizzy Ettinger) and Cupar (Megan Fehr) — then embark on a quest to rescue their missing friend, leading to a confrontation back at the colony.
Throughout the play, the two ladies from Earth long to indulge in the mysterious contraband stimulant they’ve brought with them — later revealed to be tea — but also live in fear of the authoritarian Colonel Say (Emily Crocker), watching them through a two-way telescreen a la 1984.
At 60 minutes, the Hanley play was the longest production of the weekend, and it impressed on virtually every possible level, from the lively performances and clear diction of the actors to the use of fog, lighting and sound effects.
The production made liberal use of recorded music, ranging from classical music to Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon, while the sets depicted both the dark, mysterious world of the moon people and the gleaming, sterile environment of the human colony.
The play was written and directed by Leanne Griffin, who began leading the drama club in Hanley 16 years ago when she was teaching there. Dave Carter served as assistant director and constructed the set.
Hanley’s performance was well-received by both the audience and adjudicators, winning a slew of awards for the cast and crew, and Griffin said she was pleased with the results and with the crowd response.
For the full story, see the April 27 edition of The Davidson Leader.