The St. Timothy High School drama group will be presenting their yearly production when they roll out their own version of Grimm from May 8 to 11. Grade 12 student Joshua Dobrowolski who plays the lead role of Grimm, and Delaney Wiebe a Grade 11 student, who plays Grimm's sidekick Abrianna Van Helsing, didn't want to give away too many spoilers when asked to describe what the play was all about. "It is a classic tale of a hero and a villain who are at odds with each other," Dobrowolski said. "Grimm, the protagonist in the story, goes to fight Bloody Mary, the evil vampire who also happens to be the empress and ruler of the grand British empire. I'm a prince, I care about my people but there is also this streak in me that likes adrenaline and adventure." "My character is a spin off of Abraham Van Helsing. She is an immortal semi-vampire who gets very irritated with Grimm. She likes things done a certain way and Helsing keeps him in check," added Wiebe. "I'm the royal guard in charge of all the other royal guards. Helsing is the immortal semi-vampire that is basically the big boss of all the other guards around Grimm's castle." On the antagonist side of the story, Grade 12 student Rylee Maxwell will be portray Bloody Mary, while Grade 11 student Nyssa Orr takes on the role of one of Bloody Mary's court Jesters. "I'm a vampire experiment by Count Vlad Dracula and I'm an evil ruler, who has oppressed my citizens and the hero of the story (Grimm) is trying to free the people from my grasp," Maxwell said. "My court Jesters are my form of entertainment. They sing, they dance, they rhyme and little kids will love them." Orr added, "My character works for Bloody Mary. I'm one of two court Jesters and we were adopted into the evil family. We're actually kind of stupid and don't really know what's going on ... we just love Mary." St. Timothy drama instructor Kevin McGregor is known for taking classic fairy tales and putting his own spin on them, as well as creating his own story lines for the audience to enjoy. According to Wiebe this year is no different. "We actually have in the program, we have a set list of Easter eggs hidden in the play to provide information on all of the hidden meanings and inside jokes from past characters, lines and stories," Wiebe said. "With that said, it won't be confusing if you're coming to watch this year's play and haven't seen the previous productions. It's a totally separate story. It's going to be lots of fun and I'm really excited." "The play is an into the woods style mash up of fairly tales, but specifically tailored to Grimm fairy tales," Maxwell said when asked about what the audience could expect. "There's a little bit of music, dancing, some awesome sword fights, wit and humour. It's really good all around fairy tale type play. It's an extravaganza of fine arts and fairy tales." Dobrowolski and Maxwell have been partaking in drama since they were in Grade 7 and with these last four shows being their final at St. Timothy, the pair have different feelings going into their final production. "Yeah it's set in for me. I get a lot of melancholy feelings, all of these traditions and people that I've loved for so long, it's really coming to a grand finish," said Maxwell. "I've been involved with 10-plus plays, and the drama people have become quite the family for me. All of our traditions have been coming together and I'm really excited that this is the last play I'm going to do. There are certainly feelings of sadness and it's going to be hard to say goodbye to everyone involved in this whole production." "It feels weird. I don't think it's quite set in yet ... I haven't quite wrapped my head around it yet. My first two years of the play it was kind of looking up to people for inspiration and it was fun to just tag along," Dobrowolski said. "Then the last three years have been full of crazy adventures and mentoring others. I really enjoy that about our drama program, it's seemingly a mentor ship program and it's also a family. We have Grade 7 students who are part of the play as well as Grade 12s and the older students get to support the younger kids and that's really cool to me." Tickets are priced at $10 and those interested in purchasing them can get them at the school's front office or at door, but can also call 403-500-2106.
