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Rockland District High School will both hostand compete this weekend. Pictured are DanaClark and TJ Dodge in “A Comedy of Errors.”Dagney C. Ernest/photos atwww.mainephotosnow.com

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

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Arts & Entertainment > Features

Act-ing upMaine Drama Festival this weekend

By Dagney C. Ernest(Created: Wednesday, March 5, 2008 4:12 PM EST) More Features

| Text Size | Comment | Print | E-mail | Letter to the Editor |

Casting; set design, construction and decoration; lighting and sounddesign and implementation; script memorization, characterization andblocking; costuming and makeup; rehearsal after rehearsal — multipleelements go into a theatrical production of any length. This weekend,more than 3,000 students from 70 high schools around the state willtake all that, compress it to less than 40 minutes and put it on theroad for the regional competition of the 78th annual Maine DramaFestival.

The Midcoast regional will be held at Rockland District High School, 400 Broadway, and almost all the participating troupes from Knox, Waldo and Lincoln counties will be there. Two to three one-act plays will be presented in each of three sessions: 6 p.m. Friday, March 7, and 1 and 6 p.m. Saturday, March 8.

The plays range from Greek drama to student-written comedies and everything in between. The festival divides schools into two classes based on student population: Class A for schools with more than 550 students; and Class B for those with fewer. The scoring system applies standards-based methods used to grade students in public schools to theatrical


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Sophie Velleux projects rejection inMount View High School’s Moliereoffering. Dwight Collins/photos at www.mainephotosnow.com

Camden Hills Regional High School’s“Anne Frank” features, from left,Chelsea Ettinger, Anna Rich and AllieChilton. Marti Stone Photography

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performance: judges use a scale of 1 to 6 to rate how well acting, staging, technical and overall impact standards are met, not met or exceeded.

Each one-act play is allowed 35 minutes of production time, with a five-minute grace period. Each also is permitted five minutes to set up and five minutes to strike the set. Timing is strictly kept by a two-watch system; this year, there will be audible countdowns during set up and strike.

Friends and family members attending a Maine Drama Festival session need to be aware that the order of presentations can change and, once a play performance begins, no one may enter or leave the auditorium, except in the case of emergency.

The festival is produced by the Maine Principals' Association's Drama Committee and the Maine Drama Council, with Camden Hills Regional High School’sRick Ash coordinating. Admission at thedoor is $7 for adults or $4 for studentsfor each session, with all proceedsdonated to the MPA.

Two winners, one from each class, from each regional will be selected to advance to the state finals, set for Friday and Saturday, March 21 and 22. The Class A finals will be at CHRHS and the Class B finals will be at Cape Elizabeth High School.

Following is information about the Midcoast entries, listed in alphabetical order.

Calendar of Events

March 2008

S M T W T F

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“Hamlet” gets the actor’s nightmaretreatment from Belfast Area High School. Clockwise from front are Cameron Grant, Tyler Johnston and Tyler Seaney. DagneyC. Ernest/photos at www.mainephotosnow.com *More showpictures with Maine Drama Fest/Midcoast schedule*

Belfast Area High School

Belfast's show, directed by teacherMichael Lawson and local actor WoodyGaul, is “Something is Rotten in theState of Denmark,” a Shakespeareanspoof by Joseph Wallace. The castfeatures Adam Hanson, SusanHolman, Tyler Johnstone, AngelNewton, Caileigh McCoy, VeronicaPenniman, Caitlin Rooney, TylerSeaney, Alex Knight, Nathan Howard,Cameron Grant, Emily Desjardins,Tom Burpee, Rachel Doody, HannahStimpson, Sammy Munson, MattPender, Allison Blake, Kyle Smith,Rachel Sylvester, R.C. Ehman, MattBonney and Cassie West.

Gary Desautels is the stage managerand R.C. Ehman is the artistic designer. Adults Toupie Rooney and Gary Grant did the set design and construction, while adult KeLee Grant did costume design with students Allison Blake, Jessica Farrar and Meghan Trefethen. The light and design crew includes Sierra Ventura, Randy Nichols and Adam Rumney, with adult Matthew Beaulieu. Students Holly O'Brien, Marlie Ihnken and Ellen MacDonald comprise the stage crew, while adult Jennifer Hall designed the hair and makeup and student Wesley Sterrs is in charge of video production.

BAHS will present its Class A one-act in the 7 p.m. Saturday session at Mount Desert High School.

Camden Hills Regional High School

Camden Hills Regional High School is competing with a cutting ofFrances Goodrich and Albert Hackett’s “Anne Frank: Diary of a YoungGirl.” A final pre-festival performance is set for 7 p.m. Thursday, March6; see the calendar on C2 for ticket info.

Directed by CHRHS senior Kayla Dinces, the cast includes Anna Rich, Sam Bakley, Allie Chilton, Chelsea Ettinger, Ryan Thompson, Zach Halberg, MacKenzie Gasset, Alister Phaup, Robert McKinley, Annalise Welte and Zach Jaques, Jesse Quint and Jonas Burke. The set, costumes and props were designed, created and organized by a team of 20 students, led by seniors Morgan Cafferata, Molly Derrig, Nick Barrows, Gracie Buckley and Kimberly Rubin, and junior Nick Belléy.

Camden Hills will present its Class A entry in the Saturday afternoon session at RDHS.

Georges Valley High School

Georges Valley High School in Thomaston will bring a perennial favoriteto the festival: three short plays by David Ives. Gilbert Boynton andKatherine Hynd are featured in “Sure Thing.” Emily Hunt, GabriellePoor, Shane Lavoie and Emma Vachon star in the simian/Shakespearepiece “Words, Words, Words,” while Ivy Gray-Klein, Elliot Bryant and

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Zachary Quint are cast in “English Made Simple.”

Bryant directs the production, advised by adult volunteer Camilla Gray; they also collaborated on designing the set, which was built by Bryant, Gray and adult volunteers Stan Klein and Sheldon Bryant. Vachon doubles as stage manager and Quint is doing sound. Patrick Wallace is in charge of lighting. Stagehands are Shamus Watts and Kiel Gauthier. Gray also is handling costumes.

GVHS will present its Class B one-act during the Friday night session at RDHS.

Medomak Valley High School

John Cleese and Connie Booth’s television comedy “Fawlty Towers” willbe brought to stage by Waldoboro’s Medomak Valley High School,which will present an adaptation of the “Communication Problems”episode.

The cast features Malcolm Valaitis as Basil Fawlty, Mollie Berger as Sybil Fawlty, Abigail Drapkin as Polly and Robert Wareheim as Manuel. Hotel guests are played by Annka Metcalf, Sam Felch, Noelle Beck, Brian Sweeney, Mike Delahanty, Hannah Vail, Brynna Skov, Kelsea Gunn, Brandon Poli, Ivy Gardner, Chelsey Coburn, Amanda Pendleton and Will Jackson.

Teacher, and MVHS alum, Steve Gleason directs, assisted by parent volunteer Lynn Lackoff, and fellow teacher Ken Martin is the tech director. Nickolaus Kleiner did the costume design, Brenden Peters handles lighting and Amber Abbotoni, sound.

Set construction was done by Skov, Erin Wareheim, Hannah Goodwin, Kelly Foster, Gwendolyn Moiles, Laura Beal, Keely Walsh, Molly Parent, Amanda Pendleton, Alisa Waltz and Nichole Doughty.

MVHS will present its Class A entry in the Saturday afternoon session at RDHS.

Mount View High School

Thorndike’s Mount View High School is undergoing renovation … andits one-act is going proto-Restoration. Faculty member Angela Nasondirects a cutting of Moliere’s “Les Precieuses Ridicules (The PretentiousYoung Ladies),” which dates from the late 1600s. She also turns in agorgeously period costume design, and the makeup and hair, no smallmatter for this time frame, follows suit under the guidance of studentsSophie Whited, Alicia Sousa and Kaitlyn Dolloff

The cast features Gabby Simoneau as La Grange, Sophie Velleux as Du Croisy, Ethan Hodgdon as

Gorgibus, Harlan Crichton as The Marquis de Mascarille, Dan Lombard as The Viscount Jodelet, Jason Fine as Almanzor, Emily Nason as Madelon, Niki Abrahamson as Cathos, Sara Phillips as Marotte, Maya Doyle as Lucile, Kaitlyn Dolloff as Célimène and Jeff Emery and JustinButterfield as chairmen and musicians.

Bailie Nason is assistant director; Devan Moody is in charge of lights; the stage and prop crew stars Samantha Colson, Sophie Whited and


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Kristine Marquis, and Whited and Colson also did the mask design and construction.

Mount View will present its Class B one-act in the 6:30 p.m. Saturday session at Lawrence High School in Fairfield.

North Haven Community School

It is always a challenge for the state’s smallest K-12 school for field anykind of team, but North Haven Community School is doing so to mounta comedic take on an ancient tragedy. Drama and music teacherCourtney Naliboff directs “Medea” by Wendy Wasserstein andChristopher Durang, which features Abigail Campbell as Medea, RoryCurtin and Leta Hallowell as the Chorus, Conor Curtin as Jason, CraigWaterman as the Messenger and Joseph Santee as an Angel ExMachina.

Riley Venger, a seventh-grader, is the stage manager, and Charlie Cooper and Andrew Murphy are handling the lights. Adults Terry Goodhue and Charlie Jones did the set with Dillon Ames. Costumes were created by adults Barbara Lane and Sally Robbins and student Jasmine Santee. North Haven Arts & Enrichment arts coordinator Lisa Shields is production manager.

NHCS will present its Class B one-act in the Saturday night session at RDHS.

Rockland District High School

Alison Machaiek and Griff Braley, drama directors at Rockland District High School and Newcastle’s Lincoln Academy, have been drama festcompetitors and collaborators for years. As they have in the past, theyare joining forces to produce the Midcoast regional, with Braley tacklingthe tech and Machaiek everything else. Hosting a regional or finalcompetition requires a top-notch performance space and well-trainedstudent thespians, which Machaiek, Braley and Camden Hills’ Ashhave. It must be acknowledged that their students do double duty inthese circumstances. They always seem up to the challenge.

RDHS’ Just Off Broadway Players, who went all the way to the NewEngland level last year, have done a few Shakespearean spoofs alongthe way and this year they are talking the Bard himself by presenting afast and furious cutting of “A Comedy of Errors.”

The cast features Kotaro Taniguchi as the Duke of Ephesus, Ian Ellisas Egeon, David Searle and Christian Willey as the two Antipholuses,Mike Brown and T.J. Dodge as the two Dromios, David Ernst as Angelothe Goldsmith, Lincoln Spear as Dr. Pinch, Hannah Woodman as Emiliathe Abbess, Heather Kennedy as Adriana, Maya Holzhauer as Luciana,Dana Clark as Nell, Bayli Mason as a courtesan, Amanda Burns, OliviaO’Hara, Deb Lund, Kim Borkowski and Brittany Ross as flappers andMike Verrill and Mike George as officers.

Fellow teacher David Johanson is technical director. The set was designed by Kennedy and Mason and constructed by Andrew Curtis and Ryan Meklin. Alex Young and Mitch Tucker handle the lighting and Justin Bacon, the sound. The running crew is comprised of Stuart Feldpausch, Sam Weiss, Matt Gerry, Erika Felt, Vee Ames, Nick Baudanza, Teel Ilvonen and David Mcguire. Adult Laurie Smith did the


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costumes.

RDHS will present its Class B entry Saturday evening at RDHS.

Searsport District High School

Contemporary drama is on the boards for Searsport District High School as teacher Chris Goosman and junior Abbey Norman direct EdMonk’s “At the Bottom of Lake Missoula.”

The cast features Nani Zito as Pam, Tyler Greenlaw as Dad, Allyson LaPoint as Mom, Lauralee Stairs as Sister, Charlie Seekins as Brother, Lisa Hudson as Dean Gibbons, Kylie Jettinghoff as an R.A., Emily LaRosa as a trooper and Kate Bradshaw as a priest. Some of these also appear in the ensemble, which features Fred Bailey, Brandi Brown, Nik Frazee, Hillary Hoyt, Brandon Johnson, Franzi Lehni, Marion Nickerson, Christian Clapp and Kim Poulette.

Tech director Jessica Plozaj did the sound and light design and operates the board with Chelsea Merithew. Bradshaw joins Brad Brown and Brittany Heath in the running crew. Stage crew is comprised of students of the SDHS Theater Class.

Searsport will present its Class B entry Friday evening at RDHS.

Other troupes performing this weekend at Rockland are from the aforementioned Lincoln Academy (A) and Ellsworth (B) and Morse (A) high schools. For more information about the festival, visit http://invserv.fivetowns.net/chrhs/StromAud/MDC/Festivalhome.html.

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Cajun Style Dinner on March 26th5 to 7 p.m. The Tiger outreach group at Rockland District H.S. will host a fund raising dinner for their upcomingNew Orleans trip where students will be involved in rebuilding a neighborhood destroyed by HurricaneKatrina. The cost is $5 for adults and $3 forstudents. All are welcome!

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