Stoneham Preps For State Drama Festival Finals

The Sweet 14? March Madness is alive and well at Stoneham High School.

The Massachusetts Educational Theatre Guild will hold the State Drama Festival Finals Thursday, March 30, thru Saturday, April 1, at the Back Bay Events Center in Boston (180 Berkeley Street) and Stoneham will be there.

The event is both a competition and a festival. It started with more than 200 schools across the state. Each performed March 4 at venues all over Massachusetts. There were three judges and the top three schools at each site moved on to the semifinals which was held March 18. From the semifinals, 14 schools advanced to this weekend's finals.

Stoneham performs "Kindertransport" Friday at 3 p.m. It's set around World War II and a British government program called the Kindertransport (children’s transport), which gave Jewish children mainly from Germany and Austria — and only children — safe passage to the UK. Spared the horrors of the death camps, the Jewish “Kinder” were uprooted, separated from their parents and transported to a different culture.

Stoneham Drama Club Director Sean Perry, said it's a story of a mother who deals with a dark secret she's kept for years. One of the main characters Evelyn, played by Daria Contino, struggles to come to terms with her dark past and sharing her past with her rambunctious daughter Faith, played by Maya Cunningham. She narrowly escaped the holocaust due to the Kindertransports of the late 1930's. Evelyn's younger self Eva is played by Dalilah Degen-Portnoy. Eva struggles to fit in to a new culture meeting all while dealing with the separation from her birth mother Helga, played by Maeve Rondeau.

"Portraying two different time periods is difficult, but due to our set design completed by Jonathan Burns and Zachary Keegan the transition was very easy," said Perry.

Lighting was designed by Fouad Nasr and Sydney Sheppherd. Original sound was designed by Robert Pizanno and operated by Mike Nasr, Cole Digangi, and Zack McCarville. Props master was Molly McNulty with assistance from Ben Doucette and Stephen Landers. Make-up was designed by Nicole Castano and McKenzie Schmidt. Costumes were designed by Meave Rondeau and Brenda Medieros. Stoneham has won awards in costume design, scenic design (shadows), make-up, as well as numerous acting awards presented to Casey Morart, Dalilah Degen-Portnoy, and Daria Contino. Stage manager Peter Canova won an award for his organized services.

The performance is a team effort with almost 50 students involved from acting to make-up. Here are the participants.

Alejandro Barton, Rebecca Benevides, Katelyn Brennan, Jane Buffo, John Burns, Helena Campbell, Peter Canova, Nicole Castano, Isabella Childs, Dan Collins, Daria Contino, Maya Cunningham, Natalie Daniels, Jack Kruse, Stephen Landers, David Levine, Nicholas Little, Zachary McCarville, Edward McCormack, Molly McNulty, Brenda Medeiros, Casey Moriarty, Michael Nasr, Fouad Nasr, Dalilah Degen-Portnoy, Ja Deguzman, Cole DiGangi, Angela DiLeo, Taima El-Majjasy, Ben Doucette, John Drohan, Smith Edwards, Shaughan O’Halleran, Zachery Keegan, Emily Paolini, Savannah Pirello Spraggins, Eddie Pizzano, Joseph Pizzano, Maeve Rondeau, Mckenzie Schmidt, Sydney Shepherd, Shannon Tracy, Eli Yoder, Briana Dimartino, Greta Hall, Jess Su, and Isabella Rzkowski.

"Kindertransport" is the last of three afternoon shows Friday with Case High School performing "Scenes from The White Snake" at 1 p.m. and Saugus performing "The Giver" at 2 p.m. Tickets are $20 for the mezzanine, $40 for the premium seating.

Competition gets underway Thursday at 5 p.m. with four shows performed by Acton-Boxboro, Andover, Bourne and St. John's Prep. After the Friday afternoon performances, there are three at night starting at 6 p.m. with Sharon, Bromfield, and Winthrop competing.

Peabody, Taunton, Chelmsford, and Framingham round off the final day with performances Saturday starting at 12:30 p.m.

After that, it's up the judges. The awards ceremony is at 8 p.m. Saturday.