Clue: Behind the Scenes

Behind the scenes of NT’s most recent Drama Club production.

Elizabeth Rosen Section Editor

Viola Wang Contributor

Dear North Toronto student body, We know that by now you’re very well acquainted with the music and art departments, with their frequent showcases and events spanning the school year. Little do you know, ignorant reader, that NT also has a (semi) drama program! With the generous assistance of new drama teachers, Ms. Bilmer, Mr. Macdonald, and Mr. Davis, the NT Drama Club is working to make the school’s frst play in at least all the years I’ve been here. We got assistant directors, we got set designers, we got organizers, we got acto- wait. Huh? Where are the actors? So, as a school, we may be down a couple of knowing and willing participants for drama-related activities. That’s alright because there are a select few “in the know” of drama club ventures who coincidentally enjoy and care about acting. As a part of the cast myself, in all honesty, our practices have gone smoothly despite our noticeable attendance issue. Part of the reason for this epidemic of truancy is the relatively small size of the cast. Without many people being a part of this project, there’s little pressure to prioritize presence over alternative errands. To pause the hapring (harping) on the negative, as I stated earlier, we have made some signifcant strides. Lines are fnally starting to come together, blocking is visualized and bits and pieces of the set are emerging. A few favourite lines of the cast include:

“Why are you blackmailing us? I’m frustrated that I fnd you attractive!”

“Husbands should be like Kleenex, soft, strong, and disposable.”

“There’s nothing illegal about any of this…This is America, and that was the pursuit of happiness.”

Of course, procuring weapons like a dagger or a pistol is illegal on school grounds but we’ve made do with convincing fakes. All props are carefully chosen to ft within the play and are nothing more than replicas.

Of course, if one were to swap out the prop weapons for real ones on opening night…well, I’m sure that it would add to the authenticity. All the people involved with the play are putting in the effort to make it great and if one were to stay after school on Tuesdays or Thursdays and hear a faint, piercing scream from within the auditorium, do come in and tell us to scream louder.

Now, the play Clue takes from the movie, which takes from Hasbro’s original game. While there have been multiple endings in multiple movies set to deliver shock-value to the viewers, we can promise that this one is equally, if not more so, funny than all others you may have seen. The play is set in 1950’s America, at the height of the red scare and as such, satirizes the textbook paranoia of that era. Or, maybe it doesn’t and instead is just a campy, dramatic, and overall enjoyable play that doesn’t take itself too seriously. However, that doesn’t mean the actors don’t. During rehearsals, the actors show a collective (though disjointed, due to missed rehearsal dates) effort in playing our parts to the max, pushing the shock, the humour, and the accents. Oh, the accents. They lend so much to a character. And while this article is written before we’ve fnalized the costumes, I can guarantee that it’ll be a visual affront to the eyes. In a fun, colour-coded paintball war inside a church kind of way. Anyway, our collective effort in dramatizing an already over-the-top play will be shown clearly on opening night. It’s slated to be an unforgettable experience of hilarity and a dose of good-old-fashioned comedy in a darkly set manner and with a host of unforgettable characters. It won’t be one to miss. And oh, spoiler alert: there will be murder. Lots of murder.

Now you, enlightened reader, have either already watched our performance that happened on May 31st or are just now realizing the regret you feel for missing out on the spectacle I’m certain it was.