By Judi Straughan
It doesn’t take 20/20 vision to see that being a teen today is more challenging than it has ever been.
In Matthew Heiti’s new play Black Dog: 4 vs the World, a young, bright, talented teen has taken his life before the play begins. Left in the wake of this tragedy is his teenage sister, who struggles to understand what drove her brother over the edge.
Quite by accident, she meets three unlikely outsiders who, without a sense of direction in life, help lift her veil of doubt and depression and show her that there are many promising things in all of their futures.
The story is told with love and humour and, in itself, is not a depressing experience — quite the opposite. Audiences will leave feeling hopeful and wanting more.
Heiti has written a play about teens, for teens. The characters live on their smart phones, worry about their images and are sure their parents and teachers have no clue about real life.
He even asks teens in the audience to leave their phones on during the show and tweet to the Black Dog twitter account any time they wish.
This is a 100-per-cent homegrown show. The idea was born with the struggles of a co-operative education high school student who worked at the Sudbury Theatre Centre two years ago.
The stars of the show — Christian Williams, Morgan St. Onge, April Perrin, Jake Deeth and Michael Boyce — are from the Arts Education program at Sudbury Secondary School. The music was composed by Williams, a music major.
A former drama teacher at Sudbury Secondary School, I’m directing the show. Stage managing is Colin Williams with set design by Megumi Hari and lighting and sound design by Ben Whitman. A full-sized puppet has been created by Thorneloe’s Jenny Hazelton.
As the audience is watching the live play on stage, there are film sequences in the background created by feature-filmmaker Greg Tremblay. Again, from where did Tremblay graduate? He, too, was a Sudbury Secondary drama major in the 1990s.
And yes, Heiti is a SSS drama graduate as well.
Black Dog: 4 vs the World plays at the Sudbury Theatre Centre for the public on April 6 only at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. All other shows are for school audiences. Prices are $15 for students and $23 for adults and seniors. Tickets are available online or by calling the Sudbury Theatre Centre at 705-674-8381.
Judi Straughan is the education co-ordinator at the Sudbury Theatre Centre.
