It's been over three years since students at Altona's W.C. Miller Collegiate have been able to get on stage, and present a play to the community, and that’s why the entire school is excited for the upcoming performances of “Clue – on Stage” . The relatively small cast of thirteen talented young women and men have been hard at work for weeks ahead of opening night March 1st.

Co-director, and English/Drama Teacher, Sarah Gilbert noted it was evident as soon as auditions were announced how much students had missed the opportunity to perform.

"The turn out for auditions, when we announced we would be doing a new production, it was great," said Gilbert. "We had so many students auditioning, just because we have not been able to put on a production in so long. That was really hard, because of the play itself, it's a small cast. We're only thirteen characters, so that was a little bit difficult to make hard decisions about who would play what role. The people involved, the students, have been super eager to just get on stage in front of an audience."

And speaking of those characters, is the on stage version of Clue similar to the board game? You bet it is!

"It is super similar to the board game," noted Gilbert. "This is set up around the 1950s-60s time period. We have these guests that are the exact same as the board game characters, Colonel Mustard, Mrs. Peacock, Mrs. White, all coming into this kind of creepy, gothic mansion called Body Manor. They are there to figure out exactly why they have been sent there. They've been given mysterious letters in the mail, and throughout the play, people start dying, and they have to figure out exactly who has been killing these people" 

Grade 11 student Parker Schmidt, who is playing Mr. Green, explained people may not realize just how much effort and practice time is put in by those involved in the production. In short, a lot!

"There's an excessive amount of practicing that needs to go on for something to this extent, so the practicing is intense" he said. "The amount of practicing we've done, it really shows in the final product what we've done. "

"I want to see what they think of all the hard work we've done to put this together, and I mean hard work, there are a lot of things that have to go right," added Grade 10 student Benjamin Rempel who is playing Colonel Mustard, and is really looking forward to sharing the play with the community.

Now, "Clue - on Stage" is a murder mystery, so how difficult has it been for the actors and actresses to not spoil the ending, while still needing to practice lines weeks ahead of opening night?

"Quite hard," said Dianne Harder, a Grade 11 student playing Professor Plum. "My sister has made it very clear she does not want to know the ending, but I've shared it with my mom, because I run lines with her quite often, and then I always have to go 'This certain person and this certain area, I did this, and she's like what Are you talking about?' I'm like. 'Oh, I don't know! What am I talking about?' It's been quite hard."

All performances are taking place at W.C. Miller Collegiate in the south room of the NPR. Opening night is March 1st and the final night is March 4th.  Tickets are available ahead of time, and can be purchased by calling the school office. They are $15 for adults, $10 for kids. Wednesday, March 1st all W.C. Miller students get in for just $5.

Have a listen to CFAM Radio 950 Morning Show Co-Host Chris Sumner's conversation with Parker, Dianne and Benjamin, below.