Online drama festival gets standing ovation from P.E.I. students and teachers

The P.E.I. Student Drama Festival took to the stage virtually in 2021, with class performances professionally filmed and edited and then posted online. 

Usually students from across the Island would rehearse their play or skit at school, and then finish up with a public performance on a professional stage with sets and lights, such as at the Confederation Centre of the Arts. 

Last year's school drama festival was cancelled because of COVID-19. 

This year, 203 students from grades 3 to 11, from eight schools across the Island put together 24 productions that are now available online.

Professional support 

Classes also had in-person support from theatre professionals from across the Island, helping to replace some of what they missed by not performing at a theatre.

"I think originally it was like, OK, we can still do this, but of course it's going to be very different," said choreographer Julia Sauvé, who worked with students at St. Jean Elementary in Charlottetown.

"The process is pretty much the same in terms of rehearsing a story and bringing it to life. But then how it was presented was very different."

Sauvé said videotaping the performances did mean the students missed out on some elements of a live performance.

"There is that, in terms of getting the applause and the standing ovation," Sauvé said.

"But I think that even if you're using the classroom as the stage, you're still going through a similar process of learning, rehearsing, then adding all the pieces, the sets, the props, the costumes and performing it."

Sauvé said she was impressed by the range of performances, and by the fact that the drama festival happened, despite COVID-19.

"I've got to hand it to the Department of Education, this was pretty much unprecedented for these times, and they made it happen," Sauvé said.

"They gave all of the students on the Island such a gift, to still be able to do it." 

Cheering in hallways

For the top prize winners from St. Jean Elementary in Charlottetown, their standing ovation came in the hallways of the school, after the announcement was made that they had won the two top prizes.

Music teacher Leah Ellis started creating the production with the Grade 3/4 class in March, and said it was a lot of work, but worth it. 

"I love going up on stage, and I love the audience and being in the moment with your audience. I knew that we were going to miss that," Ellis said.

"But you have to look at it as an opportunity to be creative, and to work with artists. And we really took that and said, 'OK, how can we make this work and how can we tell our story in a different way?'"

Ellis said having a professional artist come into the school to handle the recording and editing was crucial to the process. 

"Without that, it would have been very onerous for me to go in and do all that editing, something that's not necessarily my wheelhouse," Ellis said.

Ellis said there were also the ongoing challenges of staying safe at school during the pandemic.

"There were a lot of hoops to jump through this year, and a lot of changing your practices, and sort of being OK with being uncomfortable, or being OK with change," Ellis said.

"I think that doing theatre, and putting on plays is playing and exploring with that anyway. So I think everybody has made the best of what the circumstances are this year and we should be proud of that."

Ellis said she is grateful that she and the students will have the video of the production to remember the experience, along with their trophies and certificates. 

Sweet success

The students celebrated with ice cream sundaes, and the sweet feeling of success. 

"I'm very proud and it's really cool to be number one," said Idress Al Rashdan, who was one of the narrators for the production.

"I was kind of nervous at first, and then I was like, I got this and it was really good," said Kiram Altarshan, who was also a narrator.

"We kind of all worked together," Angela Stelmashchuk said.

"I still can't believe that we got awarded as the best play." 

Ellis said she hopes these students will get a chance to perform live, whenever that is possible again.

"I would love for them to have that experience," Ellis said. 

"It would add in an element of immediacy. There's something about being on stage and knowing this is the one time, and that feeling of being in the moment, is like nothing else."

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