The Bow Valley High School drama production is presenting a Halloween themed production called The Bone House, which will be shown through Oct. 26 to 28 at the Cochrane Ranchehouse.
“Evil is an unfortunate reality in our world, making this play more relevant than ever,” says Bow Valley drama teacher and director Adrienne Fossheim.
The 14A play, which was originally written by an Edmonton resident named Marty Chan, is targeted to get people squirming in their seats and to really think about what’s going on in today’s world according to Fossheim.
“It’s a very edgy, very contextual play that is supposed to take the audience out of their comfort zone,” she said.
“We’re playing around with breaking down the fourth wall, playing with immersive theatre, that is really experiential for the audience, so they can come prepared to be taken out of their comfort zone, taken out of their seats… it’s a very haunted house type feel and really we’re talking about evil and the minds of serial killers.”
Bow Valley has typically done more lighthearted plays in the past such as High School Musical and Shrek the musical, but Fossheim said it was important for the group to do something that challenged them more than in years past.
“For one, we wanted to do a Halloween themed production and secondly, we wanted to challenge the students. We felt this play would do that and we wanted to take it on,” Fossheim said.
“This is very much an ensemble piece, so the entire cast of over 50 performing arts students will take on a role as a member in the audience or outside of the play, while I also have a very large technical crew, as well as four lead characters in the play who have quite a few lines and really carry the play.”
The four main characters will be played by Griffin Evans as Eugene, Zach Lekic as Jacob, Calista Sawatsky as Gabrielle and Sheryl Dhlodhlo as the Midnight Cowboy.
Grade 12 student Maya Kerfoot will take on the role of assistant director to Fossheim, while Andrew Barnett is the head graphics and set design. Mackenzie Lee Bussey is the creative producer and Jared Somerville is the film director.
Finn Pitman, Jett Devost, Kyle Melhoff, Jordan Pohl, Ethan Krawec and Martina Velayo take up the roles of the technical crew.
Pitman is also in charge of the sound produced throughout the show, and he was quick to point out what his job was.
“I’m here to basically scare the poop out of the audience,” Pitman said with a chuckle.
Along with The Bone House, Bow Valley will present a production of Grease for its spring musical.
Tickets are available at Bow Valley High School or at the doors of the Ranchehouse for $10.
