"There's nothing quite like the first time you direct a play," Theatre Arts teacher Lindsay Soson told the audience at the start of Pentucket's first ever Ten Minute Play Festival. The free event, held for the community over two evenings last month, featured the directing talents of students from Soson's Advanced Acting class, a semester-long honor's level course.
For the class's final assignment, students were required to research the Ten Minute Play genre and select a play, organize and hold auditions, collaborate with other directors on casting and finding creative solutions for costuming, props and sets, and ultimately communicate their vision to their actors.
Auditions were open to the entire student body with more than 60 students participating. The short play format, Soson said, gives many kids whose schedules don't allow them to commit to the extended rehearsal process of the fall play or spring musical an unforgettable and educationally rich opportunity to participate in a theatrical production on stage.
The plays ranged in themes from funny to philosophical, and the festival atmosphere was low-key and inviting — with audience members cheering enthusiastically at the conclusion of each play and spontaneously dancing in the aisles between plays to contemporary music piped in over the sound system.
Student-director Aidan Bellinger said the assignment provided him with a different perspective from what he previously had as an actor and involved a lot more negotiation and compromise than he anticipated.
"A director has his ideas, but the actors also have their own take, so the director has to try to influence them," he explained.
It was definitely a challenge to work with other actors while trying to get a good grade at the same time, agreed classmate Alicia D'Olimpio.
Also making their directorial debuts were Jess Carnes, Nick Cazmay, Katie DuBois, Jess Geiger, Charlotte Koolian, Victoria Lustenberger, Jody Napolitano, Erin O'Neil, Katie Piscatelli, Byron Quinn, Lyssette Schaefer, Lindsey Schmidt and Meg Weakley.
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Students in Anthony Beatrice's Music Production I class may soon be making music with people from across the world. Beatrice, the director of Instrumental Music and Music Technology at the middle and high schools, is collaborating with Dr. Alex Ruthmann of UMass-Lowell to introduce his students to a new online software program called Jam2Jam.
Based in Australia, Jam2Jam allows students to manipulate audio and visuals to create multi-media compositions. The program is designed to give even those students with limited musical backgrounds performance experience, as well as the social dimension of live ensemble playing.
"The Jam2Jam project brings together Pentucket students with students in the UK, Sweden and Australia. There are already recorded 'jams' from those sites online, but right now, you are the only school in the U.S. participating in the pilot," Ruthmann said.
"Students will be split into groups with a computer that has Jam2Jam preloaded on it," Beatrice said. "You have this mystery computer that has new software on it, you don't know what it can do ... explore it, come back and tell us what you found, what are the possibilities ... ?" he'll ask the class.
The program allows computers in the same network to communicate, then expand to schools internationally, so students from across the globe can come together in the spirit of creative collaboration to make music. For more information, visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y08fTYdiJGA.
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Pentucket families are asked to consider opening their homes to a student from France for 12 days in April as part of the Friends of America Cultural Exchange program. The students, ages 14 to 16 years old, will be here between April 12 to 24. Host families need not speak French; rather, students are encouraged to use English as much as possible. Come to an informational meeting on Feb. 10 at 6 p.m. in the high school cafeteria and learn more about this meaningful program and how it can provide a unique cultural experience for your family. Or contact Barbara Collins or Jimmy Douangdra in the language department, 978-363-5507, ext. 299.
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The high school and middle school percussion and mallet ensembles perform a free concert for the community tonight at 7 in the high school auditorium. The concert, originally planned for late January, was rescheduled because of inclement weather. Led by Pentucket percussion director Zach Field, this year's concert includes a variety of percussive pieces and concludes with a joint performance of Gloria Estefan's "Get on Your Feet" between the percussion ensembles and the high school band.
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Congratulations to all winners of the Page Elementary School Geography Bee! Fifth-graders Martin Hayes and Brennan McGuirk took first and second place respectively. Other winners included fourth-graders Sam Brennan, Jennifer Conner, Danny Di Camillo; fifth-grader Lucas Chory; and sixth-graders Cooper Ackley, Matt Crawford, Will Duggan and Kyle Thing.
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The Whittier Regional Vocational Technical High School Committee has a vacancy for a Groveland representative. For more information, contact Marianne Naffah, 978-363-2280, ext 120.
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Jennifer Solis is a Daily News correspondent covering the Pentucket School District and West Newbury selectmen. She can be reached at jensolis@comcast.net.
