Who doesn’t love a bit of drama?
The Alberta High School Drama Festival (Drama Fest) took place at Red Deer Polytechnic last weekend, and many Airdrie students had the opportunity to participate.
The festival attracted high-school students from across the province to showcase their passion for the arts and learn from professionals in the field.
Among the participants were 36 W.H. Croxford High School students who attended workshops, created their own costumes, and received guidance from theatre professionals and practitioners.
According to Marcy Rogers, drama teacher at W.H. Croxford, the festival offered a valuable opportunity for students interested in theatre arts to develop their skills and showcase their talents.
Rogers emphasized the importance for students to learn from professionals and gain experience in the different performance and production aspects of theatre.
“They allow students who have an interest in drama to explore a number of different facets, so there is costuming, there's lighting, stage management and technical theatre as well as delving into different performance aspects,” she explained.
Drama Fest is held annually at Red Deer Polytechnic, where students have a chance to take part in an exciting and unique experience.
“They have a beautiful art centre and theatre and workshop spaces and they are led by theatre professionals and practitioners from all across Alberta,” Rogers said.
According to Rogers, the schools are first put into “zones” in which students get to engage in different areas of theatre. W.H. Croxford was part of Zone five, which covers the area west of Drumheller out to Banff and most of the communities in between.
“We first perform at the zone festival – these are one-act plays that are often student-directed, student-designed, at times student-written and student-performed of course,” Rogers said.
W.H. Croxford performed three productions that were evaluated by theatre professionals, and afterwards the students received constructive feedback on their performance. Then, each zone was able to choose a few productions to nominate so they can be showcased at the main event.
Although W.H. Croxford students weren’t selected to represent zone five, they still had a chance to participate in many other activities and workshops at Drama Fest.
“The wonderful thing is that students can still come as participants and then we get to see this wonderful showcase of student work,” Rogers said. “And so besides going to workshops, we go to plays, like daily slots of plays that we get to exchange great performances.”
In total, there were 470 students participating in the weekend's events that came from all around the province. According to the festival’s website, Drama Fest is not a competition but a form to celebrate drama students’ work in the province.
“The kids are having a wonderful time, it's a great opportunity for students who are passionate about theatre to come together, to get to know one another and to see the work that is going on in our fantastic province,” said Rogers.
