Staff Photo By: Darcie Thom
Photo Cutline: Grades 7 to 9 performing the play “Murder Most Fowl”

Staff Photo By: Darcie Thom
Photo Cutline: Grades 10 to 12 performing the play “Lizzy of the Lighthouse”

By: Darcie Thom

Local Kipling, and area, residents gathered together at the Kipling Recreation Centre for the entertainment by the Kipling High School drama students on Thursday, May 22nd.

The students performed two separate plays that had the crowd laughing hysterically and for the most part, uncontrollably.

Mrs. Highmoor and Miss Boulanger created a team of talented young actors, ranging from grade 7 to grade 9, to star in the half hour stage production of “Murder Most Fowl”. This comedy/murder mystery gave each student the opportunity to show their talents and their teamwork skills.

The students portrayed a variety of “southern folk” who were the victims of the chicken murderer. The mild-mannered and intuitive Sheriff (Chase Richards-Muskaluk) took charge in finding the culprit.

The play took place in the home of a family of country bumpkins led by Fillmore, the simple and determined father and husband (Ryan BlueCloud); Queenetta, the mother and wife with a sweet southern charm (Danielle Daku); Lillybelle, the smart and successful daughter (Skylar Debreceni); Maisybelle and Daisybelle, the fun and flirtatous twins (Julie Duke and Kelsey Miskiman); and the seemingly shy and obedient Little Girl (Courtney Dayman).

The country folk welcomed the posh and collective Mr. and Mrs. Van Can (Jayson Stefanuik and Jordyn Harcourt) and their son, with a secret occupation, Reggie, (Justin Ferch) to their home for a business visit. This play would not have been complete without Leroy and Lonnie Framingham, the nosy and mischievous neighbor boys (William Gerber and Alex Weeding).

“I had a lot of fun with my twin in the play. She’s one of my best friends. We all had a lot of fun practicing for this,” says Julie Duke, a grade 7 student of the Kipling High School.

In the second half of the evening, the students from the Kipling High School, grades 10 to 12, led the audience through a play with a ‘continuous laughing up-roar’.

Mrs. Roy-Hampton and her team of students took the crowd to an isolated location at the top of the Crummystone Lighthouse in “Lizzy of the Lighthouse”.

Britteny Hengen narrated, and assisted the actors with their lines.

A perky and fun-loving girl, Lizzy (Cali Izsak) and her sugar addicted Aunt Flora (Clint Duke), kept and cared for the lighthouse, and every one of the 500 steps to the top.

The duo was often visited by the, “not at all masculine”, McDougal sisters, Francine (Philip Highmoor), Josephine (Kent Larson) and Ernestine (Devon Shackleton). We had the pleasure of meeting the McDougal sisters’ objects of affection fisherman Harry (Ty Roy-Hampton), fisherman Larry (Patrick Beresh) and fisherman Garry (Daniel Lyons).

The plot thickened when Chester Blight (Michael Still) and Percy Usher (Blake McCarthy) stumbled into the lighthouse, confusing Lizzy, her Aunt Flora and their guests of each man’s true identity, one destined to deliver the lantern to the lighthouse and the other a conniving pirate looking for the lighthouse treasure.

” I like people and I love to have fun and make people laugh. My favorite part of the play - the funny parts! It was a lot of fun,” says Cali Izsak, a student of the Kipling High School.

It would be hard to believe that any person from the audience left that evening without cracking a smile or at least having a chuckle.

The Kipling High School staff and students and the Kipling Recreation Centre provided a fun-filled and exhaustingly hilarious evening of pure entertainment and tasty food.

Fun was had by all.