A Steady 'Drip' For Theatre 370

At first, there were 119 schools competing in the Massachusetts Educational Theater Guild High School Festival. And thanks to its performance in the preliminary round at Sharon High on March 5, Theatre 370's student-written production "Drip" is one of 42 outfits still remaining.

"Drip" will take the next step in its evolution on Saturday, when the cast takes the stage in the semifinals of the METG Festival at Weston High School.

Weston High is one of seven sites in the state-wide competition, each with six schools performing. Newburyport High's production of "Romeo and Juliet" will lead things off at 9:30 a.m., followed by "Drip" at 10:30. Host Weston will perform "The Lie That Binds" at 12:30 p.m., followed by Tyngsboro High ("The Last Days of Judas Iscariot," 1:30 p.m.), Boston Latin School ("The Realm," 2:30 p.m.) and Leominster High ("Masterpiece," 4 p.m.).

HHS' auditions for the annual one-act festival were held the last week of November following the fall musical, "." The cast started then started rehearsing and writing its own script at end of December.

The writing process started with what drama teacher Brian Hickey calls an “igniter.” This time around, the igniter was a spotlight on an otherwise darkened stage, focusing on a rose with some of its petals strewn about.

After doing random scenes, the 21-person cast (two main characters, four “victims” and 15 extras) worked around a chosen theme and derived a cohesive plot from an otherwise chaotic approach. The title can be looked at from many different angles, centering mainly on the sound during the climactic action. The play is essentially a hospitalized reflection of a patient coming to terms with reality through a series of hallucinations.

The set is unique, consisting of two benches, four tables, and eight chairs, all painted grey. The set is disassembled incrementally as the reality sets in for Viola, the hospitalized main character’s.

Viola is portrayed by Natasha Ostapovicz, the doctor by Allesandro Arena-Derosa, and the four victims by Nina Doonan, Mel Schermerhorn, Jen Tomasetti and Zach Porter. HHS student Marshall Cohen is the stage manager and Connor Clancy pitches in in an assistant stage manager role.

As a cliffhanger, and being one of the only student-written one act to make it to semifinals this year, prospects are high for a run in the finals if their performance Saturday goes well. There are no guarantees, however. In the past, this festival was known as GlobeFest, sponsored by the Boston Globe. After the Globe backed out, it is now sponsored by the METG.

“I’m excited to see what the other schools bring to the table as well, but I’m also really excited to see what they think of ours," said Ellen Howes, a member of the 15-person ensemble on Wednesday. "A lot of other schools are doing plays that have already been written, but we’re doing our own. So it’s a lot more attached to us, a lot more powerful for us.”

The rules for the competition are simple. Each play has to be one act and under 40 minutes, with judges using stopwatches for timing. The casts and crews are allowed only five minutes for set-up time. And schools may not perform the same play as last year after reaching the finals with that production.

“I have a deeper appreciation for theater because we had to go through the whole process of writing it," said Howes. "We didn’t just pick up a Shakespeare play or something, we started from square one. It’s been a really fun experience and I’m really glad I auditioned to be a part of it."