METG and the Cardinal Theater Company
On Saturday, March 7th, the Cardinal Theatre Company joined three other Massachusetts high schools to participate in the annual Massachusetts Educational Theater Guild (METG) festival, where they performed their own play, watched the other schools' productions, and engaged in exciting workshops. The day began by bus, taking the students from the Newman School all the way to Algonquin Regional High School. While many were tired, all were excited for the day ahead.
Four shows would be performed during METG, put on by Algonquin Regional High School, Gloucester High School, Saint Paul Diocesan Jr/Sr High School, as well as our very own Newman School. The Cardinal Theater Company performed first with their production of Badger, a story about girls working in an ammunition factory during World War II, centering around love, overcoming adversity, and grief. The students had to figure out how to perform their play in a completely new setting, one where they were only given about thirty minutes to work out blocking, preparing the set, lighting cues, and the sound system. While the festival is a challenge to many students, it is also a rewarding experience to perform for others; the festival combines both things well. Julian Schmitt states that "it was fun to see the other schools' plays," as the students were exposed to new stories and topics. The other schools' plays were equally amazing, as students got to watch the productions of Romeo and Juliet, Little Women, and Julius Caesar, continuing to broaden their horizons on different perspectives and issues.
As well as watching and performing plays, the Cardinal Theatre Company participated in workshops to boost confidence, embody a character more successfully, and learn to cope with stress. These workshops, Flossy Eagan ('28) states, "were really fun and built community". Dora Sarasin echoes Flossy's statement by commenting that the workshops were "interesting, and [she] got to meet new people" through them. Whether someone is in tech or an actor, confidence is key, and can teach follow through instead of hesitating before a line or missing clicking a sound cue. Embodying a character is also one of the most important parts of acting, encouraged by the workshops' focus on the physicality of a character, teaching students how to walk with emotion, and that physicality is an essential part of portraying a character to an audience. As well as confidence, managing stress is a necessary skill for all parts of life. Within the workshops students worked on coping with stage fright and mechanisms to get rid of stress and replace it with self-assurance.
The last thing students participated in during the METG festival was the awards ceremony, where students were given certificates to commemorate their excellence in either acting or tech. The Newman students who received acting awards were Aster Evans ('26), Vera Killorin ('29), Laura Lechpammer ('29), Eamon Conway ('28), and Rory Joyce ('26) who received a tech award for set design.
METG is an exciting theater festival made not only to perform and appreciate shows, but to develop necessary skills for theater and beyond. Students made new friends, developed confidence, and watched three new plays put on by other schools, leading to growth both individually and within a community.