Although by day Karie Bergstrom is busy as the director of Consulting and Human Resources at Deloitte, just recently her spare time has been devoted to a passion that she has held since school days – the theatre.  

“I was very involved in the theatre in boarding school and had a few acting roles before deciding I really preferred directing,” she explains.

“I directed several plays for school and then had a crazy idea one summer, out of sheer boredom, to put together a theatre group called ‘The Young Ones’ focused on putting on plays for charity. I decided our first production would be Toad of Toad Hall, which I directed and produced in the late 70s. I enlisted the help of my family (my sisters were both main characters) and friends and we put on the play at the Town Hall in George Town. It was a huge success!” Karie reveals the event was one of her best memories as a teenager and she always wanted to do it again with an all-student cast.

Karie says that interpreting the story into live action meant following the guidance of the author with, she says, “a few of my own twists.” She also confirms that she let the students have some liberty in the interpretation of the characters.

“We have such a large stage to work with at the Prospect Playhouse and we have utilised the space well. The ultimate goal of this production was to let the students have fun and come to love theatre as I do,” she says.

Although the play can be produced as a musical Karie says they decided not to make it that involved however they retained a few of the musical numbers.

Employing an all-student cast had been integral to Karie’s idea to recreate the play again. “My first job was a school teacher and I have a special place in my heart for children,” she states. “We wanted to engage the CDS Student Executive Council in a full production at the playhouse and to get them involved in the back-stage efforts of a play. It has been tremendous working with the assistant director and the acting coach, Stephanie Lewis and Teri Quappe.”  

Karie says the play was not at all difficult to cast but, as with all plays, there were some fraught moments. “Unfortunately I did have some late drops in cast and crew, which caused some anxiety, but I am a true believer in the idea that ‘not every disappointment is a misfortune’ and it has all turned out well,” she says.

Her biggest challenge when it came to directing a play was understanding the policies of CDS and knowing who was responsible for what as this was her first CDS production. The issues were not insurmountable, however, and Karie says she got a tremendous amount out of the production.

“I truly went into this to have fun and put on something that families could thoroughly enjoy together. The play is certainly for all ages but there is some adult humour and important life messages for all,” she explains.

Without a doubt Karie confirms that she gleaned the most fun working with the children out of the entire event. “They are always so upbeat, have great ideas and I loved the hugs!” she confirms.

Never-the-less, the final stages of rehearsals created some tensions as Karie says: “I am a very organised person and hate to deal with curve balls but certainly know how to deal with them. We did, and I was so excited with the final product.”

Karie says she and the team at CDS have had tremendous support from the production team and the schools that came on board.

“The timing was a bit of a challenge (the play aired at the end of September) due to the later start for a few schools but ultimately it worked out well. The parents were amazing – many of the cast took the script on their annual holiday with them and learned the lines ready for a full rehearsal schedule in August. They were flexible, willing to pitch in and help and even gave us some great ideas!”

She sums up: “I believe the greatest testament to all the hard work that goes into a production such as this comes when you can sit back and enjoy it. The minute we added costumes and make-up at our technical rehearsals the characters came to life on stage….I laughed so hard, even though I have heard the play many
times before!”