The high school experience dramatically changed for students during the COVID-19 pandemic - and if you ask many students, the loss of extra-curricular activities in-person was one of the biggest losses.
For the drama department at Oakville's Abbey Park High School, they haven't produced a show in almost three years for that very reason. And there wasn't going to be any productions for students to participate in this year either - until they took matters into their own hands.
Nobody Panic is a new play that has been written, directed, designed, performed by and run entirely by the students at Abbey Park. The curtain goes up tonight and runs through the end of this week - and the hard work of 30 students came together to make it possible (with permission from the school's faculty, of course.)
Department head and production supervisor Lucy McGhee explains that, aside from the required adult supervision while the students were working after-school, every other aspect of the show has been done by the students, ranging from grades 9-12.
"I'm very proud them - but I can't take any credit," says McGhee. "To produce a play of this calibre all on their own is amazing. For the students to take this initiative and have this experience is priceless for them."
There hasn't been a show on the school's studio theatre stage since the musical Grease in November 2019. McGhee says it "feels thrilling to see a show on the stage again - it’s everything. To have a live audience is exciting, and for some students it's been more than two years since they had the chance to work like this."
Drama classes were mostly held virtually during COVID-19, even after some classes returned in person. Performing arts is especially difficult to do in masks - like in sport programs, there are added safety concerns when students are in close proximity, and masking made it harder to both project and display facial expression - two components integral to acting on stage.
While dozens of students have contributed both on stage and off to the show, it was the idea and initiative of five students in particular that made this possible: main playwright and actor Callum Armstrong, co-author and co-director Oliver Beckwith, co-author and stage manager Jordan Dancyger, actor and co-author Linus Ma and co-director Marko Matov.
The five of them shared leadership for running the main operations in staging the play. In interviewing them, what was most impressive for artists so young was watching how harmoniously they worked together, how they listened to each other, and how they all jumped to give credits to their friends first.
"It feels great to have a show actually happen finally happen," says Ma. "I really didn’t want to let this school year end with both me and everyone else not having a school production."
"During COVID," he continues, "it feels we like so many opportunities. But it’s important for us to do this because in addition to COVID, all of us want to go into the arts: drama, media, film, you name it. For us to assume the roles that we want in the future lets us explore; this is a playground and a prequel for our futures."
The play itself is centered on a murder mystery that plays in real-time during, what else, a performance of another play at the local high school. Armstrong in particular has a lot to do that the audience will see directly: not only does he star as Det. Blake (a grade 12 student imitating his "Dad the police officer") in the show, but he was also the primary playwright.
Even though his first draft had to be done in less than a month in order to be approved by school staff, he says the process "was surprisingly chill. The hardest part was not procrastinating."
"I didn’t think Linus coming up to me with this idea would amount to an actual play. And now we’re on the stage and it feels fantastic." Armstrong adds, "it's strange seeing a script you wrote actually performed on stage."
Having seen the final dress rehearsal - the show is surprisingly funny and geared not just to students but adults alike; the crew knew most of the audience would be their parents and older family members, so creative choices were made with them in mind.
While the original concept for the show was Ma's idea, the five leaders brainstormed the plot together before Armstrong led writing. But the inciting incident was co-director Oliver Beckwith's idea.
"We started by asking: What if we had someone in the back take out an actor in the middle of the show?" says Beckwith. After that, he says they "then had another few weeks to polish and cut it."
He explains that he and his classmates "have done stuff on stage, and it was fun, but we didn’t get to show any of our work for the last two years to show our families." Looking ahead, "it’s gonna be great to have feedback and have an audience. When people have seen the story and asked, “who was the murderer?” - thats' so cool to see people engage with us with it beyond a base level."
Co-author and stage manager Jordan Dancyger adds, "I never thought we were going to get another production, so for us to put this on, let alone something we made from the ground up, it really means a lot to all of us."
McGhee agrees it's important this is happening so older students, some of whom lost more than half of their time as an Abbey Park student without extra-curricular drama, got at least one more chance to participate before they graduate later this month.
She says, "this is happening at the right place at the right time."
The most important part of any after-school experience is the joy and camaraderie that comes from working on something together. And as any "drama kid" will tell you: there's nothing better than the fun of creating something with your friends.
Nobody Panic plays now until Friday, June 3 at Abbey Park High School in their theatre. Shows begin at 7 p.m., tickets are $5 per person and are on sale at the door only. More information about the show is available on Abbey Park's website.