On May 5th and 6th, a group of talented staff and students from Martensville High School came together to put on a performance of ‘Clue’, directed by Camille Oberhofer and Krysta Fraser, both in their first year of teaching at MHS.
According to Oberhofer, the main goal for this year’s performance was to have fun and get people involved again, as many of the students involved haven’t had a chance to take part in one of the productions that MHS has become known for throughout the years. Due to the Covid pandemic, performances were halted so Oberhofer noted that they wanted to “dust ourselves off and figure things out.”
The cast consisted of 15 students, with additional students taking part as stage crew, makeup, hair, sound, lights, microphones, set builders, catering, costume and media designers. Cast included: Madison Mcintyre as Wadsworth, Makenna Hamm as Miss Scarlet, Caitlyn Grosskleg as Mrs. Peacock, Chantal Brooman as Mrs. White, Megan Epp as Colonel Mustard, Jarren Cusson as Professor Plum, Nathan Shutra as Mr. Green, Emma Hanley as Yvette, Rylee Anderson as Mr. Boddy, Dallas Houle as the Cook, Pine Petrie as the Motorist, Jade Chabot as the Unexpected Cop/Voice of Newscaster, Elizabeth Code-Jones as the Chief of Police, Chase Camsell as Backup Cop #1/Voice of McCarthy, Abby Brenner as Singing Telegram Girl and Tristan Lazar as Backup Cop #2.
“A lot went into choosing this year’s play. Since it has been some time since MHS’s last drama production, we wanted a script that included a large ensemble cast and was also nonsensical and fun that would encourage people to join. We also wanted to include a large set to make use of our beautiful theatre. ‘Clue’ was perfect as it included a variety of characters and allows the stage crew to be included in the action,” Oberhofer said.
Previously, Oberhofer has directed some small one-act dinner theatre plays at Rosthern High School, but this was the first of this extent that she was able to take part in. “I assistant directed a couple full length plays when I was in high school at Evan hardy, so this has always been a dream of mine to direct a play of this grandeur. I need to give credit to my co-director Krysta Fraser for all of the time and effort she put into the production to make it look amazing. Since I am a mother of three young kids, I knew I would need support and when Krysta asked me early on if she could help, I graciously accepted. I am flabbergasted at how well we work together. I always envision the big picture and she takes it in and fine tunes everything to make it look spectacular,” Oberhofer stated.
For Fraser, this was her first time directing a play; however, it had been a long-time goal of hers to take part in something of this nature, so when the opportunity presented itself, she wanted to dive in. “I knew I needed to be involved and immediately ran to ask if I could be Camille’s co-director. We are like yin and yang and the partnership worked really well.”
Both directors took away a lot from this experience, and despite the incredible amount of work involved, they both acknowledged that they are hooked and already thinking about next year’s performance.
“We are so grateful for how supportive the staff and the school has come together to make our play such a success. We had a teacher come in on Sunday and build the set, and another that designed the tickets so they were ready on time. One made costumes for our cast and we cannot forget the students who worked hours getting all nine of our wireless microphones to work properly. We are incredibly thankful for all of the support we received and we really hope to see you all again next year.”
