Elmwood School - Samara Yearbook (Ottawa, Ontario Canada)

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CANDID SHOTS

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Fry V. Rutherford M. Struthers Junior Basketball J. Mothersill P. Rogers S. Ball S. James Fry Senior Basketball P. Brxinet S. Mann A. Edwards M. Bate J. AlcCulloch C. Maclaren

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SAMARA 15 DRAM AT I C5 CURTAIN going up! There stood the ark and there stood Mr. Noah. Before the senior girls ' presentation, under the direction of JuHa Murphy had been under way more than a few minutes, the audience was trans- ported into the world that was before the Great Flood. The play, written by Andre Obey and translated from the French, deals with the trials and tribulations of old Noah, his trouble with his neighbours, difficulties met and overcome on the ark with his restless children and the animals and of his final aban- donment on Ararat. There, bereft of home, friends and children with only his wife, for company,— his wife who is dazed and wander- ing in mind from the strain of forty days and nights shut up in the ark,— we witness Noah ' s ultimate victory over discouragement and his satisfaction in the promise of the rainbow. We are indebted to the Ottawa Citizen for the following account of the play: School plays are— alas— so often a boring, incompetent affair, and this not so much on account of amateurish acting and directing but thanks to the choice of cheap, easy , hum- drum plays. A surprising exception was last night ' s pro- duction of the Senior Dramatic Art Class of Elmwood School. The young girls presented Andre Obey ' s excellent play Noah (in the skilful English version by Arthur Wilmott). The plot is a delightful modern variation of the Biblical theme. Mr. and Mrs. Noah (called Mama in the program) and their boys and girls speak the fresh, breezy, everyday langu- age of a modern family. One should think the terrible flood takes place somewhere around Billings Bridge or Rockcliffe (to come closer to the school ' s dis- trict) and not in the vicinity of Biblical Mount Ararat. But in spite, or perhaps because of the present-day conversational style of the Noahs, the poetic charm and solemn atmos- phere of the Biblical story is maintained throughout the play. True Artistic Value The Elmwood drama group, it is stressed, chose this play of true artistic value to develop the imagination and creative ideas in the minds of its young players. Besides, the part of Noah was played by two actresses in the various acts to give more girls a part large enough to show the progress made in voice and expres- sion during the year. The production was— in spite of technical limitations— one of the most delightful dra- matic experiments seen in Ottawa during the last years. Its success is, of course, due in part