A Christmas Carol takes the stage
Lead actors set bar with great performances, says director
Darrell Greer
Northern News Services
Wednesday, December 21, 2016
ARVIAT
The Arviat Drama Club returned for its annual holiday play this past week, with a production of A Christmas Carol.
The Ghost of Christmas Past (Robyn Koomuk) tries to show Scrooge (Justin Suluk) the error of his ways during the Arviat Drama Club's production of a Christmas Carol in Arviat - photo courtesy of Gord Billard |
It was the third time in 15 years the club performed the classic tale.
"It's a big crowd pleaser because it's such a funny comedy with great effects," said director Gord Billard.
The troupe hit the stage for three matinee shows for students, and delivered two evening performances for the general public.
The production attracted around 100 theatre lovers to each of the evening performances.
"I had a lot of people tell me how great they thought the show was," said Billard.
He said while the club hasn't had an absolute sell-out since the last performance of The Grinch, the feedback from A Christmas Carol was overwhelmingly positive.
"It's hard to compare the numbers we pull in when we do The Grinch, because everybody loves The Grinch so much," he said. "So, it can be argued it's, more or less, in a class by itself here, as far as the different productions we do."
Billard said doing special afternoon performances for students, from elementary to senior high, can also cut into audience numbers during the evening shows.
He said a very small percentage of students who see the play for free will pay $2 to come back and see it again during the public performance.
"I always wonder, too, if the fact the play is done in English is a deterrent for a lot of the Inuktitut speakers in town," he said.
Billard said he was quite happy to see the actors be bold enough to employ a little improvisation during A Christmas Carol.
"They did it three or four times to comic effect and, each time, I thought it was really cool," he said. "The improv provided that smile, or that little chuckle, in the middle of what is a fairly gloomy play throughout."
The strong performances, he said, carried the show. He said he can't help but be a little biased - working so closely with the actors from day one until the final curtain falls - but he was really impressed by the confidence and clarity delivered by his top actors in A Christmas Carol.
"There were very few lines missed during any of the performances, and they were loud, clear and articulate in delivering their lines," he said. "Our lead actors set a very high standard from the beginning, as they came out in full character, coming on very strong, and that upped it for everyone else who wanted to reach that same level of performance."
Billard said you could tell watching the performances that the actors were into their characters and really wanted to be seen and heard. They always paused properly for the laughter, waiting to make sure the audience was paying attention to them before delivering their next lines.
"A lot of things worked, and the reason they pulled off their improvs so well was that they had grown to be so comfortable in their roles," he said. "The actors, themselves, realized there was good communication and co-operation happening, which had them working as a team."
Billard said the club will begin work on its next major show, to hit the stage in June, after Christmas. He couldn't confirm what direction the next show would take, but said he was looking at Romeo and Juliet.
After the success of A Christmas Carol, anything is possible.
"I received a message from an elementary teacher, telling me it was one of the best plays we've done yet and it should be scored and done down south," he said. "It was a very good, collaborative effort by everyone."
