Purple Haze Advances to METG Semi-Finals

SHS Drama Club breaks new ground despite auditorium construction

For the 40-member cast and crew of “Purple Haze,” Saturday, March 4th, started at 6:00 a.m. with a 45-minute bus ride to Norwood, MA. Despite the frigid temperatures, the students were very excited to participate in the preliminary rounds of the high school METG (Massachusetts Educational Theater Guild) Festival Competition.

This year’s festival season is especially exciting for SHS Drama, as “Purple Haze” was both student written and directed — a first for the club. The team began writing in the fall with a stellar writing team: juniors Callie Moss, Sean Francis, and Alex Moon, and seniors Eila McCulloch and Maeve Chapman. Moon and Chapman are also the directors for the show, which has been rehearsing for four months. The show is an adaption of Shakespeare’s “Midsummer Night’s Dream,” which they performed in the fall. The script takes the classic story and frames it into the 1960’s.

The METG Festival features a collection of schools from Massachusetts competing in a 14-hour event composed of several one-act shows. In order to compete, each show has to perform under rigorous stipulations: each play must be under 40 minutes and specific guidelines for the set up and break down of sets must be followed. This year there were a total of nine shows, one of which did not participate competitively. Three judges then chose three productions to move on to the semifinals.

It has been four years since SHS last moved on to the semifinals: In 2013, a production of “The Crucible” advanced to the next round in the competition. Within this year’s club, no one has ever participated in a semifinal production, and, for seniors, it was their last chance to compete at a  higher level.

The club faced a challenging obstacle as they prepared for this year’s festival: due to the high school construction project, they couldn’t practice in a theater. Instead, practices were held in the SHS cafeteria. However, actors, crew members, and writers alike were able to test run their show in an actual auditorium before the festival: Hingham Middle School generously offered their auditorium for the February 16th dress rehearsal and the public performances on February 17th and 18th. Although the production wasn’t held in their hometown, SHS thespians were still able to draw an audience. “We showed the value of the students in the club in that it’s been completely student driven,” said Moon.

“Purple Haze” will move on to the semi-final rounds along with two other plays: Norwood’s production of “Petty Theft” and Foxboro High School’s “The Chronicles of Jane: Book Seven.” This victory was met with much celebration, as seen in the video posted on the Scituate High Drama Club Facebook page:  http://bit.ly/2mCbih6. The club will join six other schools when they perform at Sharon High School on March 18th at approximately 1:00 p.m. Moon spoke for the cast when he stated, “We’re super excited to move on because that means we get to do it all over again.”