Appleby College - Argus Yearbook (Oakville, Ontario Canada)

Page 101 text:

other. The big stage door opens and the first actors prepare for the big moment, their faces freshly powdered. Chris smiles at the stage- manager and starts to fiddle with a button. Music fade, and stage lights up! The play has begun, there is no turning back. For two, long months the six actors have worked and prepared for this moment. Learning lines, blocking, practising over and over again until it was perfect. Do it again. you could hear Mr. Josselyn saying as you strolled past the gym after supper. It ' s not easy working for a perfectionist! But these are just a fraction of the people that make the play a success. Behind the plaster and canvas walls of the set, peering through the inky glass behind the audience are the backstage crew. For the last week they have virtually lived at the Oakville Centre, going back to school only for sleep and the oc- casional class. Sitting in the audience, watching the final product, it ' s hard to imagine the many problems that had to be ironed out. The folding table that invariably folded on Louise Stacey and Jeremy Hughes during the murder rehearsals, the two broken telephones, the set preparations, and the meticulous placing of the lights. Of course you can ' t cover everything: the stubborn lamp that wouldn ' t light when Chris turned it on. The unexpected comedy of the murder and Andrew Krempulec ' s brief but memorable performance. And the letter, what happened to that letter? In the two large dressing rooms the atmosphere is charged. People are close, as only they can be when they work, fail, try again and finally succeed together. Fade and out. Through the double-plated window high in the back of the auditorium, Colin and Dave watch the audience file out, talking and laughing between themselves. The play was another success and no-one could deny that. Well done everyone! Dave, Mr. Josselyn wants to see you about that second pipe, it seems to be acting up again. And can ' t we do anything about Doug ' s make-up and ... Richard Woolley ■ W -T J-: -m.ii ip v . Y m M P L El i 2 4 J pP ■c m nF • R m- f- Produced and Directed by Mr. Josselyn

Page 100 text:

There is a murmur of voices, interrupted by a sharp bark from the two overhead speakers. Five minutes, boys and girls, principles to the wings. Hello lights? Stand by tor house fade. Colin, thirty seconds to music, begin countdown. In the dim, blue light of the control room two shadows sit pensively at their controls. The digital read-outs glow on the board, everything is poised, ready. Over the headphones a light, non-sensical conversation is taking place but the participants are only half-listening; their attention is focused on the stage-manager, waiting for that all- important word that will start the play. In the wings everyone is deathly silent, whispering nervously to each Dial ' ' M for Murder i

Page 102 text:

On April 18, 19, and 20, 1979, Gilbert and Sullivan again enter- tained audiences at Appleby in the form of the operetta H.M.S. Pinafore. To the audiences, it was an evening of entertaining musical fun, filled with farce and catchy melodies. To the people who staged it, though, it was the satisfying culmination of several weeks of hard work. Teamed with St. Mildred ' s, the leads, chorus, and directors laboured lovingly to put on an excellent production. It ' s true, of course, that the per- formance had as much fun putting on the show as the audience did watching it. Backstage on the nights the production was shown was a hectic bustle of actors and stagehands. The curtains rise was anticipated eagerly by everyone in- volved, and it ' s fall was invariably celebrated. Thanks and congratulations are due to all the performers, who turned in an excellent show, to the teachers, and to the ladies who aided in the effort, Mrs. Royce, Mrs. Jensen and a whole host of people (if all the names aren ' t down here, somebody should have a program you can look at). Thank you as well to the or- chestra. We can ' t forget the cast, of course. With Chris Baker as Ralph, Eileen Ferguson as Josephine, Suzanne Duncan as Buttercup, and Glenn Wright as the Captain, there was plenty of talent. Andrew Pollock ' s Dick