Comedy is a bit like a making a meatball, it can be taken for granted but both take plenty of work and the right ingredients before bringing a smile to a customer’s face.
Oilfields High School Drama students are foregoing the traditional Christmas play this holiday season and are presenting the comedy Million-Dollar Meatballs starting Dec. 12.
Signe Goplen plays restaurateur Sue Du Jour, who needs to wow a food critic to keep her restaurant alive. Meanwhile, a pair of robbers have stolen some diamonds and hide them in the restaurant.
“This play is definitely more comedic-based than any of the other plays I have done before,” said the Grade 12 Goplen, who previously was in Robin Hood. “This is based on the comedic element – slapstick. A lot of physical humour, a lot of pauses that increases comedy.
“It’s hard because in a serious play, you want to keep going make sure there are no pauses, so people aren’t focusing on awkward stages – here you are trying to intensify how awkward something is to make it funny.”
She said she uses her physical humour when asking a disruptive person in the eatery to leave.
“I enjoy how we are seeing a different aspect, how we draw out that comedy,” Goplen said. “We have to be able to keep control, we can’t laugh at it. The characters think of it as being very serious, this is a normal average day, it’s dangerous, but for the audience it’s ‘that’s hilarious.’’’
Oilfields drama instructor Pam Pracic said the students’ chose the play, due in part to the strong characters.
“There aren’t really any supporting characters, they are all unique,” Pracic said. “The students were allowed to have fun with it.”
However, the work involved in delivering a comedy is no laughing matter.
“There is so much complexity to comedy,” Pracic said. “The timing, the pauses, the physicality, there is so many layers that you don’t think about when you are watching what’s on stage.”
Chara Smith and Kaden Mowatt, play the diamond thieves Frankie and Beans, respectively.
“I’m a thief that likes to see the big picture and not do things myself – leave it to my counterpart Beans,” Smith said. “I like to think I know everything.
“It’s fun to play the know-it-all, that doesn’t really know it all. It’s an interesting dynamic to have.”
She said while timing and delivery makes comedy difficult, the benefit is throughout the play she can feed off the audience’s energy.
“(During rehearsals) you are learning where the moments are and to build your physicality around that moment and really create something the audience can react to,” the Grade 11 said.
Physicality is a key part to Mowatt’s character Beans, who is missing a few ingredients in the old noodle.
“It’s a really interesting transition,” said Mowatt, who is a solid student. “It is kind of like I have to forget what I know. In the beginning (of rehearsals), I was doing facial expressions like I understood what they were saying and what to do.
“You kind of have to forget about that and act like you have no clue what you are doing.”
The athlete in him likes the physicality of the role.
“It has to be purposeful action and not just anything,” Mowatt said. “Keeping a pathway and a routine down, that is the hardest part.”
Million-Dollar Meatballs runs from Dec. 12-14 at 7 p.m. For more information go to oilfields.fsd38.ab.ca
