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pu EEE EC ---------------------- np -- i -------- 32 -- PORT PERRY STAR -- Tyesday, May 1, 1984 Cloak of Ermine showcases varied talents by Cathy Robb In the end, everyone in The Cloak of Ermine lives happily ever after, but like in all fairy tales, that's about par for the course. It's also about par for the show's writer-direc- tor-composer, teacher Susan Reed, who admits she's a sucker for a happy ending. "I'm a romantic at heart," she says, grinn- Meet Susan Reed, the R.H. Cornish Public School teacher who wrote, composed and directed the recent Drama Club production of The Cloak of Ermine. For all the details on what was a terrific show, see story. ing widely. : Thanks to her ain talents, the R.H. Cor- nish Drama Club pre- sented three successful nights last week of The Cloak of Ermine, a cheerfully romantic prince and pauper story involving a cast of 73, not including set, light- ing, make-up and var- ious other technicians. Which was part of the problem and part of the reason Miss Reed wrote The Cloak of Ermine in the first place. For. the past few years, the Cornish Drama Club has pre- sented a different play each year, always with a large cast. The prob- lem lies in finding a play that requires a large number of people and is suitable for a public school company. "It is difficult to find a play that's suited for this age group and for the number of students in the club," she explains. Last year the group put together a lively rendition of The Pied Piper, involving a huge cast of rats and village - folk. This year, after scratching her head for awhile trying to think of a play to do, Miss Reed decided to write one herself. She wrote The Cloak of Ermine in three days. "It was fairly easy because I knew how I pictured the actors. I knew what kids I was writing for, basically," she says. Still, she got pretty excited during those "three days of writing, interrupting herself by phoning friends every time the plot thickened or took an unexpected twist. "I would get so excit- ed when I was writing it," she recalls. And when she wrote a be- heading into the script she got really excited. "I thought, how am I going to get out of this? Oh my goodness, we can't have a beheading at school!" All the action in the play takes place in an imaginary place called Utland, where an in- sensitive king arranges a marriage for his son to a grouchy princess. Not able to go through with the planned nupticals. the young prince runs away and trades places with a poor man. The prince turned pauper soon falls in love with a peasant girl; the pauper turned prince goes head over heels with a rich girl; and somehow, the grouchy princess saves everyone's skins when the masquerade is un- covered - promptly finding her own true love at the same time. More than 100 kids in Grades four to eight auditioned for parts in the play last February, and those that were chosen have worked diligently right up until the final curtain closed last Friday night. Much of the credit for the play's success has to go to Miss Reed, how- ever, and her fellow teachers and sidekicks Nancy Bark and Janice Patton. Together they created a production many people in the audience won't soon forget. The Cloak of Ermine isn't the first play to Miss Reed's credit. Last Christmas she wrote and produced a seasonal story for the school's annual Christmas con- cert. The 28 year old English and History teacher is a history and political science grad- uate from the Univer- sity of "Toronto and has worked at Cornish for five years. She grew up in the Sunderland- Uxbridge area and is presently living in Port Perry. She's always fostered a lively interest in theatre and starred in various high school pro- ductions including The Boyfriend, Bye Bye Birdie and Hello Dolly! 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