      A comedy which transports the plot of the classic story of Cyrano de Bergerac to a present day television station where Cyrano is the station manager, is the production being staged by the Kamsack Comprehensive Institute senior drama club.
           The KCI drama club plans to enter the one-act comedy A Nose for the News by Charlie Lovett in the Saskatchewan Drama Association’s Region 4 senior drama competition at Sacred Heart High School in Yorkton on March 18.
           And then on April 5, the play will be staged at the KCI as a dinner theatre. On April 7 the club will be staging a final, regular performance at the KCI.
           In the play, Cyrano would love to be Roxanne’s co-anchor on the news show, if only he didn’t have such an enormous, bulbous honker, according to the play’s synopsis. “Meanwhile, scheming station owner Mr. Gauche has designs to sink their ratings so he can collect insurance on the failed business. He arranges for Chris, the handsome but dumb-as-a-brick mail guy, to be Roxanne’s new co-anchor. To save the station’s ratings, Cyrano ends up writing the news stories for Chris, who gets all the credit for the poet’s wit and wisdom.That is, until he finds himself in a bind and must lip-synch to Cyrano’s smooth and savvy voice on the air (with as much synchronization as a bad Kung-Fu flick).”
           The play includes other zany characters, including Raymond, the bongo-toting beatnik host of a cooking show; Flip Flagstone, the weatherman who flips a coin to predict the weather for the day; and Spice Spencer, the sportscaster who always has a sporty metaphor.
“There’s never a dull moment,” the synopsis says. “When ratings actually spike and everyone’s cover is blown, Cyrano finally gets the respect he deserves: as the new co-anchor with a nose for the news.”
Alanna Finnie portrays Cyrano; Lemay Keshane, is Martha, the stage manager of WCDB; Jayden Raabel, Flip Flagstone, the weatherman; Kyle Morgan, Chris, a new guy in the mailroom; Breanna Bland, Claire, an announcer; Henry Thomas, Spice Spencer, a sportscaster; Brayden Fatteicher, Droopy the Clown, the world’s most depressing clown; Sam Klapatiuk, is Pierre, a dense child; Lizzy Hilderman is Vincent Valert, a not-too-bright news anchor for a rival station; Julianna Raabel, Bret, a news writer; Alayia Montana, Raymond, an incompetent host of a cooking show; Koryssa Woloshyn, Dolores, Roxanne’s executive assistant; Allison Placatka, Lisa, the producer of a cooking show; Mikayla Woloshyn, Roxanne, the anchor for the nightly news, and Devin Klapatiuk portrays Mr. Gauche, the evil owner of WCDB.
Shaylyn Matwicejzko is in charge of lights, and Maija Rousseau, sound. Elisabeth Ashley is looking after set design and is the stage manager; Chloe Irvine and Kristen Doyle are working with the sets; Greg Thomas and Krystal Deveau are the teacher-directors and Barb Tetoff is the production supervisor.
Since the end of January, the students have been meeting every day, most often prior to 9 a.m., Thomas said, adding that the play is about one hour in length.
Thomas said that the club agreed to stage it first at the festival, and then would be able to make use of the festival adjudicators’ critiques prior to staging the play for the home town dinner theatre.
Members of the KCI Spartan Voyageurs, the group that each years takes a several-day wilderness canoe trip, will be preparing and serving the meal at the dinner theatre.
It will be a menu of lasagna and Caesar salad with desserts, Thomas said. All proceeds will go towards their outdoor education experience. The cost is $15 per plate and a total of 15 tables of eight can be sold.
The KCI senior drama club did very well last year when it was the host of the Region 4 drama festival, he said, adding that from the festival, one play will be selected to advance to the provincial festival in Regina in May.
On Monday, Josh Ramsden of Saskatoon, who was the adjudicator at last year’s festival, will be at the school offering critiques of the production and will provide whatever help is required, he said.
A committee read about 12 plays before deciding between A Nose for the News and a play which is a spoof of both the Harry Potter and Twilight series.
