Students performed five one-act plays in the H.J. Cody School theatre Monday and Tuesday evenings.
The plays were heartfelt and filled full of real life scenarios the audience could relate to.
The actors and actresses made the audience feel like they were in the story. The performers made eye contact with the audience, making their characters come alive.
The plays were comical and at times it was hard to believe the students were only acting out their characters.
The performances started out with ‘Scuba Lessons’ a comical play. The main character Kelly Donovan played by Shyrina Tarnasky waits for her date to arrive. She waits in the same coffee shop where her friend Dan Lanzetta played by Alexander McBride is on a date with Rayne Storm played by Daryl-Lynn Jimmo.
While Kelly waits for her date to arrive she is eaves dropping on Dan and his date.
It becomes obvious that Kelly wants Dan and is jealous that he is on a date with another woman. In the end Kelly and Dan admit they like each other.
The second play, ‘A Life Sentence’ was the heartfelt story of an old woman sharing what it was like to see her husband go through dementia.
Anne Bailey played by Lauren Rowe shared her life story with the audience about how her husband Dave played by Wyatt Bossé lead a life as a police officer and suffered from dementia before he passed away.
Rowe made her character come to life with a sincere voice and intense facial expressions. It brought some audience members to tears.
In character she described what she had gone through while taking care of her husband who was sick with dementia.
Bossé played the part of Rowe’s husband to perfection, acting as a confused old man who was insistent on being able to find his pants as he needed to be at the police station. His wife kept insisting on how he didn’t have to work that day.
There were moments where Bossé’s character would come back to the moment and would recognize his wife leaving the audience in amazement at the younger actor’s skills.
The third play was ‘Checking Out’.
A British play, with characters Sandra and Kerry-Anne, played by Emma Villeneuve and Jessica Beck with with both of the girls playing their British characters stunningly.
The mother and daughter they portrayed seemingly lived two very different lives.
The fourth play ‘Sure Thing’ was comical and made the audience laugh. Betty laid by Sophie Brooks sits and reads a book while Bill played by Josh Parenteau musters up the courage to sit in the chair beside her.
At the beginning the audience is amused with both characters saying ‘sure thing’ after everything they do.
After Bill musters up the courage to sit beside Betty they start a conversation about the book she is reading. The audience can tell things aren’t quite as they seem when they keep hearing the bell ding.
It was definitely a play that made the audience laugh.
The final play ‘Almost Maine’ depicted romance and love in a comical way.
The plot ranged from characters sitting and mustering up the courage to say ‘I love you’, skating, losing a boot and admitting to being lonely, to camping out in someone else’s back yard just to seethe stars mend a broken heart.
All of the plays were well rehearsed and well prepared.
They were all directed by students who played multiple roles.
Jacqui Renwick, H.J Cody High School theatre arts teacher said the students took a great deal of work to make the show happen and only asked her for help when they needed to.
Renwick gave much of the credit to her students who lead the productions and put on the five brilliant performances.
reporter@sylvanlakenews.com