It’s a magical world where unicorns, children and villans run amuk and a simple piece of bubblegum can defeat evil.  Stories from young writers are being brought to life by Dancing Sky Theatre’s Page To Stage Contest this week.The contest is the culmination of several months of brainstorming and writing by elementary school students in Humboldt, Viscount and Bruno.

Kristi Friday created the project while working as the artist in residence for Dancing Sky Theatre’s 2015/2016 season. Friday charged her Grade 3-6 students with writing their own fairytales as part of the drama outreach program. “My daughter Pyper is always creating stories and acting them out for us,” says Friday. “I thought it would be fun to give kids a chance to tell their stories, their way and then have them performed by professional actors.” The program was such a hit, Dancing Sky Theatre decided to bring it back this year.

“I thought it would be fun to give kids a chance to tell their stories, their way and then have them performed by professional actors.”

Students were given the task of creating a story using the fairytale structure with a twist. They were given simple objects like a piece of rope, an egg and even a pair of socks and they had to incorporate it into their story somehow. Friday then chose three stories from each school that would be turned into plays for the community. “What they came up with is wildly entertaining, it was hard to choose from the original 30,” says Friday. “Our actors then had to take these stories and had to make them flow. We do some adlibbing, use puppets and professional sets. We’ve had a ton of laughs along the way.”

This week, the troupe will perform three afternoon shows and the best part is, the chosen plays are kept a secret until the cast hits the stage. “They get so excited. Last year I had students running up to me in the parking lot trying to figure out who won.” Friday says, “They are just as excited to see the stories created by their classmates as they are to see thier own.”

The shows are open to the public. Friday says they get a great turn out and that response is encouraging to the young writers.  “I grew up in a small Saskatchewan town. Arts programming just doesn’t get out to those small communities the way it does in Regina or Saskatoon.” Friday explains, “This is a way that we can bring theatre to them. It’s important for them to be creative and this program helps them do just that.”

 

Page To Stage Contest

June 6, 2017

2:00p.m.

Humboldt Public School Gym

 

June 7, 2017

2:00p.m.

Bruno Central School Gym

 

June 8, 2017

2:00p.m.

Viscount Central School Gym