CANORA - Teenagers have been known to struggle with their identity, and on June 1, CCS Drama presented a production entitled Identity Play; Or who you are when you think you are.
Written by Jon Jory and Jason Pizzarello, “This play is meant to be a theatrical exploration about discovering who we are and who we want to be,” state the author notes. “Do our actions define us or do our intentions? What about our words? What about the way we dress, the friends we keep, or how we act online? Is who we think we are different than how other people see us? Growing up in a complex world of instant gratification, where status seems to mean more than anything, and we meet each day with an endless, overwhelming bombardment of choices and expectations, we thought it’d be a good time to pause and reflect. In that spirit, we hope that these scenes provide discussion and debate.”
The CCS production included a total of 21 speaking parts. But since there were only nine actors, most had two or even three different roles.
The youthful actors seemed to relish the opportunity to explore these questions on-stage. In the opening monologue, The Question, JJ (Savannah Bryant) immediately gave the audience plenty to think about, looking back to a particular item she found on a recent summer job application.
“I turn the page, and Kaboom! ‘Name an experience that changed your life.’ I’m 17 years old, I barely have a life.”
After a bit of soul searching, JJ finally decided on her answer. “Birth. Just that. Because that’s by far the biggest thing that’s happened to me so far. And get this, they didn’t buy it. Frankly, I think too much was expected of me.”
In the next scene we see the bedroom of a typical teenager, Debbie (Zoe Brodeur), having a discussion with her friend Erica (Klowie Holmgren) about how Debbie’s going to approach starting in a new school when she moves away. After discussing whether to go by Deborah or Deb, Erica asks, “Who do you want to be? Do you want to be you?”
That brings on discussion of some very minor flaws like nail biting and even possibly smiling too much. But in the end, Erica spells it out for Debbie in a straightforward answer, “You’re only the best person I know. And that school better not change anything about you and I’m really going to miss you. Especially if you change.”
This leads to a scene examining the significance of appearance, specifically how the friends of Justin (Cordae Cree) were initially a bit freaked out after he showed up wearing glasses one day,
“We’re not going anywhere.”
“What is on your face?”
“I just never saw you as a glasses person.”
His friends bring up the idea that Justin should switch from glasses to contacts, “Because then we wouldn’t know. And we wouldn’t have to explain it to everybody.”
Finally, after getting used to the glasses a bit, Hillary (Klowie Holmgren) admits, “I like them. I like you, as a glasses person.”
A scene with a very competitive game of table tennis turns around completely when the game stops and Pong (Mataya Ball) challenges Ping (Maisie Kuzminski), “For five dollars, tell me who you are.”
Eventually Ping replies, “I am what I do.”
This leads to Ping being accused of cheating on tests and starting fights. Ping states, “That’s not who I am,” which causes Pong to reply, “I don’t think you have a clue. You don’t get the money.”
In a scene which takes place after the show Beauty and the Beast, Belle (Zoe Brodeur) is approached by fans who were obviously amazed by her performance.
“You were fantastic.”
“More like fantabulous.”
“And you looked sensational, really.”
Later in the scene we meet Cross (Maisie Kuzminski) a runner long-distance who is in line for a major scholarship, but has decided to drop running and focus on theatre instead, even though she “sings like a duck” according to her friend Leah (Zoe Becker).
She was just an extra in Beauty and the Beast, but the way Cross sees it, “When I get on stage, I’m alive. When I’m running I’m a robot. It don’t even recognize that robot.”
Other scenes include discussions of colour, the merits of going to college versus choosing a trade such as carpentry, and getting fed up with how much we all rely on our phones and other technology.
Then, JJ returns to close the evening with The Answer, and is ready to expand on her answer on the summer job application to the question regarding “an experience that changed your life.”
JJ admits to realizing that “I’m just feeling extremely humble to be alive at this moment.
“How does this make me a better job applicant or change who I am? I don’t know. To be honest, I haven’t become who I am yet. I’m still not there. But I’m on my way. I’m becoming me. I’m a project still in development. It could be said, by wiser folks than me that; I’m almost born. So stay tuned!”
Actors involved in the play, ranging from Grade 5 to Grade 9, included: Storey Fehr, Savannah Bryant, Mataya Ball, Klowie Holmgren, Cordae Cree, Maisie Kuzminski, Ferlyn Brass, Zoe Becker and Zoey Brodeur
Fehr, Bryant and Brass also looked after the stage, lights and sound for the production.
Kimberly Merriam and Erin Graas were the directors.
Graas was pleased with how well the show went over, especially considering the young age of the cast and crew.
“The script was specially chosen for actors this age, and was written with young actors in mind,” said Graas. “Our students are at the same points in their lives that many of the characters are. Art imitates life, and vice versa.”
Merriam said these talented young people seem to have really taken to acting.
“It looks like some of these kids have found a home on the stage.”
