Iqaluit students plan monster night at Nakasuk

Jessie Williams will never give away her black Converse shoes. Never.

She has the names of her fellow elementary school actors and singers written all over them. It took her four days to get them, but she did it.

“I love the play,” Williams said. “I wanted to remember it.”

Jessie Williams, who plays the main character named Emily, has the names of her fellow elementary school actors and singers written all over them. Performances of “There Is a Monster in My Closet” run May 14 and 15. (Photo by Arty Sarkisian)

Nakasuk Elementary School in Iqaluit is staging the musical There is a Monster in My Closet, a play written by Angela D. Stewart based on a popular children’s book.

Performances are scheduled for May 14 and 15.

Williams, who is in Grade 5, plays one of the main characters, a girl named Emily who invites her friends for a sleepover to catch a monster that lives in her closet.

“We just think it’s really cute, kids having a sleepover and a monster,” Kelly Esford, a Grade 5 teacher who is the director of the play, said during rehearsal recently.

Esford moved North from Ontario 13 years ago, and since then the school has been presenting plays every year.

This year, there are 20 children from grades three to five who are on the stage with speaking parts and about 50 more from grades one to five who are in the chorus.

Auditions started in September and rehearsals began in October. For most of the school year they were practising once a week, but the closer it came to the shows, the more often they rehearsed.

This final week before the shows, they have been practising every day.

“It’s exhausting, but I love it,” Esford said with a smile. “I am a big musical lover so being able to get up and perform, it’s just mind-blowing. It’s so, so rewarding.”

There is no admission cost for this play, but a donation box will be set up at the entrance. The money raised will be used to pay for future productions.

“Having a ticket price can exclude some people and we want as many families as possible to come and see this,” Esford said. “This is a play for kids, and it might inspire them to do that [perform in theatre] when they get older.”

The plays have been popular with the public, Esford said, and usually on the first day they have “more people than seats.”

For both days’ performances, the doors will open at 6 p.m. The play starts at 6:30 p.m. and is anticipated to go on for about 90 minutes. Children need to be accompanied by an adult.