HomeMy WebLinkAboutHuron Expositor, 2007-02-28, Page 7News
Zoo Story hopes to entertain
adjudicators and audience
Jennifer Hubbard
"Sometimes a person has to go a
very long distance out of his way to
come back a short distance correct-
ly."
Central Huron Secondary School
drama students will be travelling to
Listowel this week to perform their
rendition of The Zoo Story at the
annual Sears Drama Festival.
Written by Edward Albee, The Zoo
Story, features two local student
actors Cam Laurie and Alex
Munnings.
"It's a play
about how
t w o
strangers
react to each
other when
they're put
in a situa-
tion that
they're not
really com-
fortable
w i t h "
explained
Munnings.
"It's about
how we
sometimes
hide our-
selves away
in a bubble,
thinking
about the
here and
now, but not
looking at
the big pic-
ture," Laurie
added.
The pro-
duction also
includes
eight crew
members,
under _the
direction
CHSS
teacher
Stephen Oliver.
As a "language -rich" play, Oliver
said the Albee script was a challeng-
ing choice, and commended Laurie
and Munnings for their dedication.
"In this particular case, the actors
never leave the stage. The set also
poses challenges because it is small
and confined," he explained.
"Because of the way things are set
up, the actors are always facing
each other. There's no faking it."
And while they have been to the
Sears Festival in the past, both
actors said The Zoo Story has been
their biggest theatrical challenge to
date.
"It's a whole different kind of feel-
ing," Munnings said. "There's no
place to hide. With larger casts you
can sometimes hide in the back-
ground, but when it's just the two of
us, there's no place to go."
CHSS will take the stage at Sears
this Thursday at 7 p.m.
And while he's confident that the
local production will "hold its own"
among competing schools, Oliver
wasn't sure how CHSS would fare in
the festival.
"You never know what the tastes
and preferences of the adjudicators
are and you don't know where the
other productions are at, so it's hard
to say," he
explained.
F o r
Laurie, the
festival will
be more
about "enter-
taining the
audience and
getting them
to think."
"I'm
not so sure
it's the kind
of play that
will go onto
the next
level, but for
me it's more
about per-
forming than
competing,"
he said.
" I ' m
pleased with
how far the
play has
come and the
trip that Alex
and I have
taken to pro-
duce this
piece of the-
atre."
T h e
61st annual
Sears Drama
Festival will
be held in
Listowel from Feb. 28 to March 3,
and feature 13 productions from 10
area high schools.
St. Anne's will present two plays —
Check Please and Charley — on Feb.
28.
Awards will be presented to win-
ning schools on March 3.
Each year more than 10,000 stu-
dents and teachers from 300 schools
throughout Ontario participate in
the festival, which began in Toronto
in 1946.
Local performances of The Zoo
Story are planned for March, "to
help pay the hills from Sears,"
Oliver added.
Check out the school's web site at
www.oliver.typepad.com/chss/ for
future updates.
The CHSS drama group are, in back from left
to right, Karen Ball, Amanda Voisin, Claire
Salsbury, Ben Shepherd and Jon Shepherd. In
front, from left to right, Alex Munnings, Cam
Laurie, John Munnings and Patrick Armstrong.
Missing is Alex Paquette.
The Huron Expositor • February 28, 2007 Page 7
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