Christina Saad || STAFF WRITER
Andover High School’s drama guild hosted and performed at the Massachusetts Educational Theater Guild (METG) High School Drama Festival Semi-Finals Round on March 14.
The METG Drama Festival is a three-round theater competition in which high schools from across Massachusetts must put together a 40-minute play. Each play is one act and is produced by members of a competing high school.
The drama guild spent many weeks producing and connecting the various elements of their play, and ended up making it all the way to semi-finals. They focused consistently on creating a balance between their play’s acting and technical elements.
This year, AHS’s drama guild performed their own version of “The Actor’s Nightmare,” written by Christopher Durang. The play revolves around an accountant who is inexplicably thrust into the world of acting. He must perform roles that he does not know the lines for, and is often forced to improvise along the way.
“You show up on stage, and you have no recollection of why you’re there, or what you’re doing, or what your lines are,” said senior and actor Carmina Merrill.
The play ends in a way that leaves the audience wondering whether this “nightmare” was real life, or if it was all a dream.
“I’d like to think it was real life, even though it has this very dream-like quality to it—very nightmarish,” said Merrill.
The actors and tech crew reflected on their performance after the semi-finals. Other than a few small areas for improvement, they thought they performed well.
“I was happy with the performance we put up…” Merrill said. “Drama Festival is tough because only two plays move up out of the six that come to our site.”
The group worked hard in the time between preliminaries and semi-finals, taking judges’ criticisms to heart during rehearsals. They worked on refining sets and diving further into character roles and acting choices.
“You could have a really beautiful set, but the lighting is not as beautiful or as well executed,” said Theater Arts Director Susan Choquette. “You could have a really beautiful set, but maybe the acting values aren’t as strong.”
First and foremost, the judges look for harmony between all elements of the play. They want the technical elements and acting values to be performed at the same level.
“They’re looking for all of the puzzle pieces to fit together, and that they’re executed at a very high level,” Choquette said.
When producing a play, the actors and tech crew first spend a lot of time understanding the story and characters of the play. Since they were recreating an original play, the team spent multiple rehearsals analyzing the script and understanding its thematic values before beginning production.
Once they understood the play, they started planning how the actors would move on stage during specific scenes and constructed sets that were both appealing and efficient. They worked on the scenes one by one and later put everything together.
“We have a [tech crew] that works in the shop almost every day in the weeks leading up to the [performance],” said senior and actor Kai Cruz.
The crew worked on building the sets and painting the completed pieces, starting with the largest sets first. They pre-programmed most of the lighting cues in the show, excluding the spotlight put on the lead actor, which was done manually. In addition to the sets and lighting, they also had sound designers and a running crew who aided in scene transitions.
“All these technical elements worked together to produce a great show, and being in the position to call the show was a great experience,” said junior and stage manager Evan Leary.
In addition to the 40-minute time limit of the play, the tech crew and cast were also expected to arrange all of their sets onstage prior to the performance within a 5-minute time limit.
“Our tech crew has to make sure that they’re able to build a set that is not only visually appealing, but able to be executed technically,” said Cruz.
Failing to meet the time requirement is grounds for disqualification, so efficiency must be prioritized. Leary was in charge of organizing the five-minute set up and assigning jobs for the crew.
“I would say that the five-minute setup and overall organization was the most difficult part for me, but it was still very enjoyable, and I had a great time running it,” said Leary.
Drama Festival members also expressed that they specifically enjoy hosting competitions. They find it a unique opportunity to meet and get to know people from other high schools, and it is a great day of theater in general.
