Danvers High School Academy Theatre Presents “The King Stag” and Hosts METG Semi-Finals on Saturday, March 18, 2017

The Danvers High School Academy Theatre (DHS ACTS) presents the one-act play “The King Stag” on March 18, 2017, at Danvers High School, 60 Cabot Road, Danvers, MA. DHS ACTS will perform at 1:30 PM as part of the semi-final round of the Massachusetts Educational Theater Guild (METG) High School Drama Festival. DHS ACTS students will also act as festival hosts at DHS that day, where a total of six schools will compete, starting at 9 AM. Admission for one show or all six is $10 per ticket, available at the door. For more information, please visit http://www.danversacademytheatre.org/ or http://www.metg.org.

The other schools competing at DHS on March 18 include Amesbury High School, Boston Latin School, the Bromfield School, Georgetown High School, and St. John’s Prep. Competition will also take place at six other sites statewide the same day. Two schools from each of the seven semi-finals competition sites will move on the finals, to be held in Boston March 30 – April 1. Last year, DHS ACTS competed at finals with “Wit,” and was a 2015 State Finals Winner of the METG’s Drama Festival with its production of “Tribes.”

At the awards ceremony for the preliminary round of competition on March 4, “The King Stag” was recognized for excellence in set design (Daisy Powers and Beth Truax), costume design (led by Kayla Marshall and Sarah Sweeney), and acting (Aurora Hannisian and Ryan Webster).

DHS ACTS is presenting an updated version of “The King Stag,” Carlo Gozzi’s 18th-century Italian commedia dell’arte play. In this comic fairy tale, King Deramo of Serendip is searching for a wife. After rejecting thousands of candidates, he falls in love with Angela, the daughter of his Second Minister. Unfortunately, the evil Prime Minister Tartaglia also loves Angela. When Tartaglia learns that King Deramo possesses a magic spell which allows him to transfer his soul into the body of a dead animal, Tartaglia develops a wretched plan to take control of the crown and take Angela as his wife. Chaos ensues until a bit more magic gives this fairy tale a proper happily-ever-after ending.

The talented cast and crew of nearly 60 DHS students looks forward to presenting this competition piece under the direction of Kyla Moulton (Director) and Tracie Ewing (Technical Director). After Drama Fest, the DHS ACTS 2016-2017 season will conclude with a Musical Revue later this spring. Visit www.danversacademytheatre.org for more information.