Grade 12 student Bryanna Cowan, an actress in the SDSS play Drop, Dead, Juliet! applies stage makeup to Grade 9 9 student actor Alexa Janes ahead of a final dress rehearsal March 19, before they attend the 2018 Ontario Drama Festival.

Hub Staff

Members of the Saugeen District Secondary School (SDSS) Drama Club will be taking the stage at the 2018 Ontario Drama Festival (formerly the Sears Ontario Drama Festival) in Stratford where they will perform “Drop Dead, Juliet!” a one act spoof on Romeo and Juliet, by Allison Williams, March 23 and 24. “We’ve got a great group of people who are really enthusiastic so I can’t see doing anything but having a whole bunch of fun,” said 2-12 student Director and actor Fiona Miller. Miller said that the Club had been eyeing up the play for many years but was finally able to perform it as several students joined the Club.

Miller said that handling a directing and acting role can be “stressful at times” but said the group has a great stage manager “who’s up for anything.”

“It’s a lot of fun and I love doing it so it makes it not as much as a stress, it’s fun to do,” said Miller.

The one act spoof is a take on the William Shakespeare classic Romeo and Juliet, where Juliet has had enough of dying at the end of the play. “She decides that she's going to change the play so that it has a happy ending for her; and of course that doesn't go exactly as planned, and the play kind of evolves as she makes more and more changes,” said Miller.

Dramatic Arts Teacher Leslie Turcotte said there were 26 students involved in the 2018 play, and that they have been rehearsing since the fall, with 17 students taking on acting roles, while doubling as makeup and hair specialists.

Turcotte said she saw an influx of student involvement this year and, in addition to several new Grade 9 students joining, had at least half of the participants from the 2017 Festival students come back to take another crack at it.

“It’s a big job getting ready for [this festival], there are a lot of rules and a lot of forms and it makes the work part easier when you have an enthusiastic, positive bunch,” said Turcotte who quipped that the actors and stage hands have positive attitudes and leave the drama to the stage.

Student Director Fiona Miller applies eyeliner to actress Mikhail Messer ahead of dress rehearsal for Drop, Dead Juliet!

The play wouldn't be possible without the technical crew, SDSS student Bryanna MacLachlan who is a sound technician, next to Lighting crew members Samantha Cowan and Cameron Cracknell before the final dress rehearsal.

It was an all hands on deck situation when it came to makeup and hair for the play Drop Dead, Juliet!