This is a contribution from a Swampscott High School student, as part of the Swampscott Tides Big Blue Student News selection.
Story by Cam Tracy
The preliminary round of Drama Festival was hosted at Andover High School on Saturday, February 28, and the Swampscott High School’s Drama Club became one of three schools within the Andover quadrant to move onto the semi-final round.
Drama Festival, an annual event hosted by the Massachusetts Educational Theater Guild (METG), is a long-standing competition that brings together students from many different schools through the power of theater. Organized in a competitive, bracket-style format, the festival awards students for acting and technical achievements. Swampscott High School’s cast and crew earned quite a few of those accolades last weekend.
Seven schools competed in the Andover branch of the METG Drama Festival Preliminary Round. The participating schools included Peabody Veterans Memorial High School, Eagle Hill School, Fitchburg High School, Quabbin Regional High School, Bradford Christian Academy, Andover High School and Swampscott High School.
Like last year, Swampscott High School moved on to the Drama Festival’s semi-final round with its performance of Murder by Poe, a collection of Edgar Allen Poe stories adapted for the stage. The group previously performed the production on October 29 and was directed by the club’s advisor James Pearse.
The other two performances advancing to the semi-finals were Peabody Veterans Memorial High School’s A View from the Bridge and Andover High School’s Proof.
Swampscott’s Drama Club brought home several awards for their performance. The recipients were Scout Myers-Smith for her role as “The Woman,” Kira Madruga for her role as “Pluto,” Alexander Winkelman for his role as “Heart,” Ava Miller for exceptional sound design, and Dylan Fafel for his technical skill in lighting.
Myers-Smith, Miller, Fafel, and fellow actor Samantha Sparcio – all members of Swampscott High School’s Drama Club Council – spoke to the importance of the competition and the overall connection within the club.
“Drama Fest is such an important day for theater because of the ability to connect with other schools and form new bonds and we couldn’t be more excited for the ever-approaching semi-finals and what results they bring,” the group said.
A student from Andover High School’s production told the Swampscott Tides / Big Blue News that “all of the actors worked incredibly well together and had strong chemistry throughout the entirety of the show.”
“I think the highs and lows of Catherine’s emotions were incredibly evident the way that our actress Romy portrayed her. As a whole while putting up the set our group worked very well as a team to get out set up in a quick amount of time,” the student said. “Overall I’m so proud of us and the work we’ve done.”
Emy Santos, a student at Peabody Veterans Memorial High School and lead actor in Stage One Drama Club’s performance of A View from the Bridge, spoke to the ongoing relationship between the schools’ productions.
“Peabody last had the pleasure of seeing Swampscott at a drama festival around three years ago, and it is safe to say that after three years, they still deliver riveting, technologically harmonious, and engaging productions,” Santos said. “‘Murder by Poe’ was an enticing show filled with praiseworthy actors and a crew that clearly fosters well-executed collaborative precision in their artsmanship. We at Peabody cannot wait to see where this astounding show takes them; we wish them good luck at semi-finals.”
Swampscott High School’s next performance of Murder by Poe in the semi-final round of Drama Festival will take place at North Reading High School on Saturday, March 14, where they will compete against six new schools.
