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On with the show

Arviat youth take part in international Christmas plays


Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Nov 20/02) - Students at Qitiqliq secondary school in Arviat will be taking to the stage to perform a pair of special Christmas plays this holiday season.

NNSL photo

Arviat drama teacher and play director Gord Billard and Mrs. Claus (Katelyn Sulurayok) peek backstage during last year's production of Slapshot Santa Scores Again. - photo courtesy of the Department of Education


The school's drama teacher, Gord Billard, says the junior play (Grade 7 and 8) will be performed by a number of schools in Canada, the United States and England.

Billard happened upon the musical, Jesus's Christmas Party, when he followed up on an e-mail sent to him by a former colleague, Dwight Maloney.

The note was from English editor Ruth Kenward, who, among other things, works at Starshine Music -- a company that writes and publishes children's musicals.

"Ruth was looking for schools around the world to run a pilot production of a new musical by Roger Parsley, which was adapted from Nicholas Allan's children's book, Jesus's Christmas Party," says Billard.

"Here we are a couple of months later and I have a double cast for a play with 10 roles."

The Arviat students took part in a phone interview with students from Eastbourne school in East Sussex, England, this past week.

Billard says the English kids were full of questions for the Arviat students, wanting to know all they could about Nunavut.

He says the people across the Atlantic are excited about Arviat's participation in the project.

"The play is, basically, the story of Jesus's birth as told from the point of view of the innkeeper and his wife.

"They were trying to get some sleep and couldn't, because Joseph and Mary came knocking on the door together.

"Then Joseph came knocking looking for extra blankets, followed by the shepherds and the three kings.

"So, it's sort of a comedic look at the Christmas story from their point of view."

Rehearsals have also begun for the senior play (grades 9 through 12), The Gift of the Magi, which is O. Henry's classic short story put to stage.

Billard says the interest and level of participation from the students has really taken off during the past year.

"The number of students wanting to take part in the plays has doubled.

"Having to double cast the junior play says a lot about how successful the plays were last year."