Banff has been the scene of many big events – performances in the park, premieres at The Banff Centre, sporting events large and small, even the swearing in of brand new Canadians during citizenship ceremonies.
But this weekend (insert drum roll in your mind here), Banff Community High School will stage the world premiere of The Ronda M. Leacock Memorial Beauty Pageant.
In all, two dozen student thespians, a dozen production crew and a trio of musicians will stage the Pageant, which was commissioned specifically for the BCHS crew and which will be staged at The Banff Centre’s Margaret Greenham Theatre, Friday (Feb 27) at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday at 2 and 7:30 p.m.
Tickets are $10 and available at the BCHS office.
“It’s the world premiere, so it’s pretty exciting,” said director Joe Bembridge. “We’ve expanded to having students from Grade 7 to 12 this year and our three-piece live band has some original music for the pageant part of the play.”
Work on Pageant has been been under way for more than three months; it’s the fourth program in four years for the school and the third to see a mainstage production.
In the past, BCHS productions have been musicals. “Then we thought, why not commission something for the school?” said Bembridge. “I knew (playwright) Joanne Sarazen from Concordia when I went to university and thought she’d be the perfect fit. I approached her and she was up for the challenge.”
Once Sarazen had accepted the challenge, she asked what to write about and Bembridge said themes of body image, sexual bullying and in-school popularity are woven into the play.
“Not being a musical, this is going to be bare bones, where acting is the most important thing, instead of the whole spectacle of theatre. Other productions we’ve done were heavy on technology and sets.”
The Ronda M. Leacock Memorial Beauty Pageant is set in a rural Alberta school in contemporary times. There’s the most popular girl in school and the mean girl who decides to wreck the pageant by “going after students emotionally,” said Bembridge. “She gets others in the school to do things to make it fall apart and there’s a stage manager who tries to keep it all together.
“The characters are the archetypes of a high school. Joanne’s been out of high school for 15 years, so she was concerned whether she was hitting the mark with the play. The students read the script and gave her feedback.
“Every year we never know how many students will sign up for the production, so this play is flexible for that. And to have an openly gay character as the lead was a shock.
“But Bojee Reyes took on that challenge and he’s hysterical. It’s his first time acting. He’s trying to keep the pageant from falling apart and not in the most positive way. Within the play, the students were allowed to decide on their character’s talent for that portion of the pageant, based on their characters. In the play, the students were assigned to be in the pageant, rather than volunteering as one would expect.
“There are some poignant and very dramatic moments in this play,” said Bembridge, who describes Pageant as a dark comedy for a 16+ audience.
