School plays are usually familiar dramas, musical theatre or Shakespearean in nature. PGSS teacher Shannon Schinkel's Drama 10 class this semester is going in a tilted direction. On Thursday night they are splattering Vanier Hall in Random Acts of Comedy.
This is a fast-paced kaleidoscope of kidding around. Fourteen skits will rollick along, with casts ranging from two to 22 at a time. None of them have ever been sequenced together like this before.
"I did some picking and choosing and pulled all these together from (script company) Pioneer Drama, and two I wrote myself," said Schinkel. "I didn't pick any of them until I'd met the kids and got to know them a little bit."
This was an unorthodox group for Schinkel. Unlike past productions, this time the class was peppered with students seconded from other programs in the school, some of whom speak little English, some of whom are special-needs, but all of whom are keen to be involved in this form of learning and mental expansion.
"These are really funny kids, an eclectic group, a variety of skill levels and backgrounds, and they are aged Grade 8 to 11," Schinkel said. "They are neat group of kids, they are all working hard, and they've breathed a lot of life into me."
Three of these student performers are particularly interested in the craft of theatre. Kyle Duchnych is in Grade 10, Connor Creuzot-Chin is in Grade 9 and Quinlan Maybin is in Grade 8. All are in multiple skits, with some extra duties besides.
"I play a guy in one skit who talks on the phone in the movie theatre, in my second I am a politician and in the third skit I'm the doctor in a doctor's office where I start catching everything the patients have," said Maybin.
Creuzot-Chin said he was naturally outgoing and preferred to make people laugh, so this experience was just right for him.
"I start off as a choir instructor character, introducing the play in a Saturday Night Live style; then I'm in the doctor's office sketch giving Quinlan a disease, and I'm also the classroom understudy so I have to learn the whole play in case I have to fill in for somebody," he said.
His only complaint about the process was having to tone the humour down for a PG audience. As a teenager, all three young actors agreed, they have edgier tastes. Creuzot-Chin is interested in trying standup comedy to push those boundaries and get more stage experience.
"I'm not hugely funny, but I like to think I have good ideas for drama," said Duchnych. One example was realizing he and his skit partner would be of better service to the show if they swapped parts, and Schinkel agreed.
"Doing theatre lets us be ourselves in a class, which you can't get in metalwork or math," Duchnyck said. "We (teenagers) have a sense of drama, we have a sense of sarcasm. We like to make each other laugh."
Case in point: when he was explaining his skit about an airplane passenger freaking out on the plane, he, Creuzot-Chin and Maybin started improvising about maybe they should call a United Airlines security guard to rough the passenger up, or maybe his bunny got frozen (referring to recent news items about air travel).
There are two opportunities to see Random Acts of Comedy at Vanier Hall. Both are on Thursday, one at 10:20 a.m. for family, friends and PGSS classes, then one at 7 p.m. for the entire community.
Admission is by donation, with proceeds being donated by the class to the Prince George Humane Society.
