Samuel Hearne class preparing to put on play
Malcolm Gorrill
Northern News Services
Inuvik (Dec 01/00) - The curtain will rise soon on a pair of performances by a Grade 9 class at Samuel Hearne Secondary school.
Cheryl Baytaluke's students are busy memorizing their lines for the play, Too Wrapped Up for Christmas, written by Dave Brandl. Elizabeth De Klerk, who plays "Lisa," explained the play is about a group of teens who are wrapping presents to raise money for charity.
"There's all these problems they go through, with the mall manager not wanting to give them the space where people can actually see them, they're right at the back of the mall," De Klerk said.
At the end, some special Christmas wrapping paper gets left at their table by a man dressed as Santa Claus.
"They think it's just an actor who has little kids sitting on his lap, and then after that, suddenly all these people start coming and their donations jar is just full and they're all happy," De Klerk said.
"It's fun. I like it."
She said she looks forward to when the group will start using some props and conduct some practices in the gym.
The class will put on the play Dec. 14 and 15. Show time is to be 7:30 p.m. both nights, and tickets went on sale this week. Following each performance, there will be Christmas caroling, as well as coffee and tea and refreshments.
Baytaluke explained that all members of her class are involved in the play in some capacity, whether they're acting in it or helping out in other ways. She said things were coming along, though not as smoothly as she'd like.
"They always don't take it very seriously until a couple of weeks before," Baytaluke said. "It's so frustrating to me. I keep nagging at them to learn their lines. Somehow, amazingly enough, it all comes together at the end."
