Peacock students had a great weekend last weekend at the Saskatchewan Drama Festival regionals taking place at the school.

The play “Cut” won the best overall production and will move on to provincials in May in Regina.

“Both of our plays here at Peacock, the audience loved,” said Duane Arndt, assistant director of Cut. “All of the plays this past weekend, from all of the different schools. Myself, I thought were fantastic. I’m glad I wasn’t the adjudicator because it would have been really tough to choose. They were all great.”

The 40th annual drama festival included 12 performances from schools in the area.

Arndt, said it will be a different experience staging their play at the University of Regina versus their home auditorium at Peacock.

“The stage is slightly different, so entering and exiting are going to be different,” Arndt said. “We also have characters that come on to the stage from the audience, and here that was pretty easy to do. That’s going to be a little bit different at the U of R. The seats are situated a little bit differently. That will be a challenge.”

Cast and crew for the play will get some time off before provincials and then re-tune shortly in smaller groups. As provincials get closer, they will do a dress rehearsal in front of friends and family.

The production will get one tech run at the U of R stage before hand.

Winning the festival wasn’t the most important thing, Arndt said – having fun and growing as a behind- the-scenes person was more important.”

“The adjudication is one person’s opinion,” he said. “Your play might impress them and it might not.”

The drama program at Peacock has been getting stronger again.

“When we had our auditions to divide up the casts, we had about 40 students out,” Arndt said. “Which is the most I’ve ever seen... The kids just really want to participate in drama, which is really nice.”

The runner-up for the best overall production and the winner for Dr. George Falk Memorial Ensemble Award was Boxes by Cornerstone Christian School, and the best visual production and best technical production was 10 Ways To Survive The Zombie Apocolypse by Riverview.

The Mary Ellen Burgess Performance Award was won by Kaia Isenor of Peacock's Cut. Best characterization award was won by Riley Hartness of Cut, and the Bob Hinitt Memorial was won by Adam Strong of 10 Ways. Sarah Gutek of Boxes won the best stage manager award and Gracie Farago of Law and Order won the most promising stage manager award.  

Boxes won the best technical crew award. Acting awards of merit went to Abby Grund (Cut), Ally Churko (The Seussification of a Midsummer Night's Dream, Milestone School), Bailey Hittinger (10 Ways...) and Madison Sauer (Walkin' Home, Cornerstone). Technical Awards of Merit went to Rebecca Gutek (Walkin' Home), Amy Dumloa (Hint, Vanier), Katy Shiers (Law and Order), and Gracie Bzdel (Nora's Lost, Vanier)