Students from Erin District High School, Norwell District Secondary School and Centre Wellington High School will be among the competitors in the 69th annual Sears Ontario Drama Festival.
The Sears Ontario Drama Festival is a province-wide competition held every year since 1946. The festival is held between high schools from across Ontario at the District, Regional and Provincial level. It allows students to showcase their creative theatrical abilities and appreciation of the arts.
This year, John F. Ross is hosting the district level competition for Guelph and Wellington County.
John F. Ross (21 Meyer Dr. Guelph) has a theatre with over 700 seats organizers are hoping to fill. The festival will be held from March 2 to 5. Each night will feature three plays from schools across the Upper Grand District School Board with an awards ceremony scheduled for March 6. The shows are generally between 30 and 40 minutes long, many are student written and they cover a variety of genres. Many plays are directed by students and performed by students. The first show will start at 6pm with the aim that the festival will finish by l0pm, each night.
Some of the plays have mature content and parental guidance is suggested.
On March 2, Erin students will perform a 35-minutes drama Who Am I This Time and a 30-minute musical drama Chromium Throne.
On March 4, the Norwell cast will stage a 30-minute “serio-comedy” entitled Selfie.
On March 5 (PG-13 Night) Centre Wellington students will perform two 30-minute student-written serio-comedies, Where Are We Now? and Level 1.
Student and senior tickets are available at the door for $5 per night or $20 for a festival pass. For adults the cost is $10 per night or $25.
For more information gvo to www.ugdsb.on.ca/jfr/jfr_drama/sears or email tom.slater@ugdsb.on.ca
