Darrell Greer
Northern News Services

Arviat (Jan 09/02) - Almost four months of preparation paid off as the Qitiqliq high school drama club sold out two performances in Arviat this past month.

The success could be at least partly due to the fact that the 2001-02 school semester marks the first time Qitiqliq High has had both a music and drama teacher on staff.

Rodney Sabourin made his theatrical debut as Ebenezer Scrooge in the Qitiqliq high school drama club's production of A Christmas Carol. - photo courtesy of the Nunavut Department of Education

The two teachers, Mary Piercey in music and Gord Billard in drama, made productions of Slapshot Santa Scores Again and A Christmas Carol their first-semester projects.

Slapshot Santa Scores Again was put on by the junior secondary students from grades 7 and 8 and A Christmas Carol was performed by the senior high kids.

High school art teacher Crystal Burgess worked makeup for the shows along with Lisa Darragh and her art class produced the backdrops for the two productions.

Burgess says the students worked on the two shows since they started their drama and music programs back in August 2001.

The shows ran for two nights and the response from the community, she says, was almost overwhelming.

"The kids received two tickets each to give to their families to come and see them perform," says Burgess.

"Between those and the people who purchased tickets, it was the most people I'd ever seen at the grey steps area of the school at one time. The grey steps themselves were packed and there were many people sitting in chairs in the area up above."

New projects in new year

Burgess says the students were proud and excited over their efforts.

She says the two productions were a total team effort.

"There were a lot of students involved in addition to the actual performers. We had proper lighting and sound, which students took care of," she says.

"Students also worked on costumes and makeup and made posters to put around the community to advertise the event."

Burgess says the students are already thinking about new projects to start in the new year.

She says it was very encouraging to see how much both the students and their parents enjoyed the shows.

"The whole thing was very professional. Judging by what we saw as their first effort, I can't wait to see what's coming."