By Skyla Skaarup
Hammarskjold High School’s production of Willy Wonka Jr. was the first play that I have ever been to. The tickets for the play I thought were just plain cardboard, but when I looked closer they actually were gold with sparkles on them. This made me think of the golden ticket from the story and that the play was going to be funny and exciting.
Willy Wonka owns a chocolate factory and he was afraid that spies would steal his secret recipes. So he fired ALL of his workers and did not let anyone in for a very long time, until now! Willy Wonka hid 5 Golden Tickets in 5,000 ordinary chocolate bars. Whoever found one would get a life time supply of chocolate and a tour of the chocolate factory. The five people who found the golden tickets were: Augustus Gloop (Mallory Gresch), Veruca Salt (Kendra Schultz), Violet Beauregarde (Kim Kennedy/Chole Kikko-Pulkkinen), Mike Teavee (Riley Dawe), and Charlie Bucket. The twist at the end was that Charlie not only won a lifetime supply of chocolate, but he also won the factory.
The funniest part, I thought, was when Willy Wonka (Adam Couture) gave Grandpa Joe (Lexx Ojala) a fizzy drink that made Grandpa Joe and Charlie (Jade Bowers) float up in the air, and then they had to burp over and over again to get back down to the ground. It was hilarious and the whole audience was laughing.
A play is different from a movie because there are live actors who perform up on a stage. The characters were dressed in cool old vintage clothing. All of the props, sets and background were handmade and painted (Emma Karhunen and drama students). My favourite background was the one of the factory which was beautiful—the people who painted the background (Mr. Kraft & grade 11 art class) must have been very committed because they put a lot of detail into their work.
I am really happy that I went to see this play. For my first play ever, I felt that it was very happy and fun 
performance. It was a musical with a lot of dancing and singing and I am happy that I got to enjoy it with my best friend Korissa, my mom, Amber and my sister, Bella—we all had a great time!
