Drama Guild Returns to Competing

• February 14, 2022

Eva Liss

STAFF WRITER

After a year and a half break due to the pandemic, Andover High School is returning in person to the Massachusetts High School Drama Festival this spring. 

The Drama Festival, also known as Fest, is a competition stretching over multiple rounds. The 2020 season was cut short by the pandemic, and the 2021 season was held virtually. However, this year, Andover is back to participating fully in-person. There will be accommodations made for the pandemic, including fewer host sites than usual and mandatory masks and vaccinations. Every participating school competes with a 40 minute long, one-act play and is judged on acting, tech, and general presentation skills.

“The way [Fest] got cut off my sophomore year… for my grade and the grade below me, [going back to competition this year is] like a comeback,” said senior Gray DiNino. “I think [it’s] going to be great this year, because even though it’s not the same as normal, it’s better than nothing.”

Due to COVID, instead of the usual three rounds of Preliminaries, Semi-Finals, and Finals, there will be two rounds this year: Preliminaries and Regionals. The preliminary rounds are scheduled for March 19 and 20, and regionals will be held April 2 and 3.  All audience members, staff, and performing members of high school companies will be required to provide proof of vaccination and wear masks for the entirety of the competition. Additionally, while AHS would host at least one round in a normal year, AHS Show Choir is holding a competition taking place on those days, so Fest taking place at AHS is not possible.

Although this year’s modifications may seem major, there are benefits to a toned-down competition. “[This year] is a good way to introduce Fest at a less intense level for anyone who’s never done it before,” said DiNino. Susan Choquette, director of Theatre Arts, had the same opinion. She said, “Until you experience Fest, you don’t really know what to expect or what you might be missing… but I can tell you—and if you ask one of the upperclassmen they can tell you—that it’s just one of the very best experiences.” 

This year, AHS’s play is Portraiture by Katherine Budinger. Budinger is a freshman at Johns Hopkins and graduated from AHS last year.

The AHS Tech Crew is very excited to be a part of the production. DiNino and sophomore Anat Briskin are set designers, sophomore Hannah Lehmann is the costume designer, and senior Alex Worthley is the stage manager. On the acting side, auditions were held on January 19 and January 20, with callbacks on January 21. The first rehearsal was held January 27.

Briskin expressed that she’s been looking forward to Fest since her freshman year, when she first learned of the intensity of AHS theater. Freshman Jonathan Oatman had the same opinion, expressing a feeling of anticipation towards the production. 

“I almost didn’t do [Fest] because I’d heard it was super stressful,” said Oatman, “because we have a short time to put together something we’re competing with, but I talked to [an upperclassman] and here I am… I’ve always loved the feeling of being that close with a group of people because of a performance.”