Singing, dancing and acting – for two Bonnyville Centralized High School students those three skills mean more than just a school play, but a potential career.
Malachi Wilkins and Chantal Baker are both Grade 12 students at BCHS and have been performing in the annual school musical for longer then they've even been in high school. For Wilkins, it all started when he was an elementary student at H.E. Bourgoin.
“They needed a little boy so they got me from H.E.B. to play Gavroche in Les Miserables,” said Wilkins.
From there he was hooked. Over the years, the young performer has taken on roles playing a mob boss, Jack from Jack and the Beanstalk and most recently, Jimmy Smith in this year's musical Thoroughly Modern Millie.
“I really enjoy the experience, I like the camaraderie between the cast mates,” expressed Wilkins.
Graduating this summer means that his role as Jimmy will be the last Wilkins plays in a BCHS musical. However, it's not the end for Wilkins. He is hoping to take his talents to Grant MacEwan University's theatre arts program.
“Malachi has just become so outgoing. He's gone from being just this little boy who's played Gavroche to trying to make a career out of it. That's just really cool,” said Nicole Baker, director of the BCHS musicals.
Wilkins isn't the only one following his dreams. Fellow performer Chantal Baker also joined the BCHS cast at a young age and has stuck with it, performing a variety of roles including Gretel Von Trap in the Sound of Music, Carmen Diaz in Fame and Miss Dorothy Brown in Thoroughly Modern Millie.
“My mom's been the director of the plays for 11 years so I've been coming to them and I've always wanted to be in them. They needed a little girl the one year so they asked me and I've been in it ever since,” said Baker.
She added, “I've been dancing since I was in Grade 1 so performing and being on stage has just been apart of my whole life.”
Baker is determined to keep performing a big part of her life - she has been accepted to the dance program at York University in Toronto, ON. While she has no exact plans for where she wants her career to go, Baker said all she wants is to be able to continue doing what she loves.
Her mother Nicole Baker, the play's director, is grateful to have had the opportunity to watch her daughter blossom over the years.
“Chantal, I've seen her grow into a much more confident person. She's a very quiet person and through both dance and plays she's just gained the confidence, she can speak to people, she can go on stage and feel very comfortable.”
Wilkins and Baker were just two of the many BCHS students making up the cast of this year's musical Thoroughly Modern Millie, which ran from Apr. 30 to May 2 at the Lyle Victor Albert Centre. Set in 1922, Millie Dillmount, played by Allison Ference, is a girl from Kansas who travelled to Manhattan where is she determined to be a modern woman. The play follows Millie and her plan to marry the wealthy Trevor Graydon III, played by JR Delamarter. Millie's plan gets derailed when she learns of Jimmy's feelings for her.
Meanwhile, at the Hotel Priscilla where Millie is staying, the owner Mrs. Meers, played by Madison Armagost, is secretly running a white slavery ring. After Millie's new found friend Miss Dorothy Brown goes missing, Millie, Jimmy and Trevor work to expose Mrs. Meers as a criminal.
Despite numerous technical difficulties such as acquiring a new soundboard, the lights going out and a leaking roof, director Baker said the musical was a huge success thanks to the dedication of the student actors.
“(The students) have done so wonderful. They have worked so hard, they've been at it for eight months and they've had to change jobs around and juggle friends. It's just a fabulous group of kids.”
The talented young actors and actresses performed in front of a packed crowd during their opening night last Thursday and sold out the theatre for the Friday and Saturday shows.
