Judah Kurpjuweit bursts onto the stage during the opening number of Elf: The Musical being performed by students at Eagle Butte High School. Performances will be from Dec. 7-9 at the Esplanade.--NEWS PHOTO SAMANTHA JOHNSON
Eagle Butte High School will be giving three performances of this year’s musical, Elf, at the Esplanade from Dec. 7-9. The school didn’t just bring performers, but their own orchestra as well, comprised of students, community members, staff from the division office and teachers.
Judah Kurpjuweit scored the lead role of Buddy and has the height to pull it off. He did some acting when he was at Irvine School but hasn’t done anything for several years. Drama teacher Scott Raible is the director of Elf and convinced him to take a part.
“It’s fun, it’s a good character to engross yourself in,” said Kurpjuweit.
With plans to become a firefighter after graduating at the end of this year, Kurpjuweit feels this was a great play to end his acting career. There are two high-energy moments for the main character in the play, one when he finds out Santa is coming and the second when he discovers it’s the fake Santa.
“This is our second dress rehearsal and I have to watch myself,” he said. “I can’t scream too loud or I’ll lose my voice before the performances.”
His mom loves the movie, although his dad isn’t much of a fan, and has seen it hundreds of times.
“It’s a good musical. I was curious about that, how they were going to bring the musical aspect to the screenplay. I prefer it to be honest,” he said. “Some of the songs I really like. It’s a new kind of format for the old screenplay with a couple of different things in it.”
Epic Zachery is also in Grade 12 and will be attending culinary school in Lethbridge next year. She loves acting and is playing Jovie, Buddy’s love interest, in her fourth play with Eagle Butte.
“It’s been lots of work but lots of fun,” said Zachery. “I’ve been enjoying it and my cast is amazing and Mr. Raible is amazing. I love this play. Not the biggest fan of the movie and personally the musical aspect is more fun.”
Raible explained, “This is our first full dress rehearsal at the Esplanade. We’ve been using the gymnasium and cafeteria (for practices). We are very thankful we can use this facility.”
There will be three matinees for local schools to attend and evening performances are open to the public. Tickets are available through the Esplanade website or at Tixx.ca with the first public performance on the evening of Dec. 7.
