FORT KENT, Maine — Fort Kent Community High School theater students are prepping for a local performance in the runup to next week’s Maine Drama Festival.
The group will take the high school stage for shows on Thursday, Friday and Sunday before heading to the festival, which is slated Friday, March 6, at the Brewer Performing Arts Center.
While a show was originally scheduled for Saturday, it’s been moved to Sunday due to a conflict with the basketball team’s state championship game.
The high school theater program has tackled projects ranging from musicals to comedy and even original material under director Doug Clapp. Last year, the group adapted Northern Maine novelist Cathie Pelletier’s hit novel “The Funeral Makers” into a one-act play, consulting and working with Pelletier.
The annual competition involves performing a one-act play, and this year the group will perform “Our Place,” based on the book by Terry Gabbard. Five vignettes run the gamut from comedy to tragedy, Clapp said.
The stories all center around a pond, which Clapp believes many in northern Maine will find immediately relatable with the prevalence of lakes, camps and waterfront homes in the area. There will be a warning prior to the play, because it contains potentially triggering material involving drowning and Alzheimer’s.
“It’s a play that people up here can relate to,” Clapp said. “Think of all the people up here that have camps on the lakes, and have favorite places that they’ve gone to repeatedly over the years.”
The 14-member cast includes some students from Madawaska and St. Agatha, as well as a couple of homeschooled students. Nearly half are freshmen.
The play presents the stories of two teenage couples, a girl going fishing with her father who now has Alzheimer’s disease and a father trying against all odds to have a good time with his family, which Clapp said was reminiscent of the National Lampoon “Vacation” film with Chevy Chase.
Other vignettes focus on a couple about to graduate high school, in which the boy wants to stay in town but the girl wants to pursue bigger things, and a troubled child running away from home.
Freshman Troy Celik, who played Jack Skellington in last year’s production of “A Nightmare Before Christmas,” plays Jake, who is trying to woo a girl at the dock. This falls apart when his old girlfriend shows up, he said.
Celik has been acting and performing in plays since he was 5 years old, and is looking forward to the upcoming competition, which will be his first with the program.
“I’m excited, and nervous about if we’re going to win or not, but I think we’re going to do a great job,” he said. “We’ve got a great play with great actors.”
Annie Kelly, like Celik, is a freshman actor coming with experience. Kelly also performed in “A Nightmare Before Christmas,” The Wizard of Oz” and “Chicago.” She described her character, Sidney, as a sassy 10-year-old.
She is also anxious about the upcoming performance, but confident in the troupe’s abilities.
“I think we’ve got this,” Kelly said. “Over the years we’ve all bonded, and I think that makes us stronger.”
Hannah Pelletier, another freshman actor, said she has been acting since the sixth grade, took a break, and then started back up again for “A Nightmare Before Christmas.” Pelletier plays Holly, who is on a date with Celik’s character Jake.
Her favorite aspects of acting are the ability to inhabit another character as well as the camaraderie among her fellow actors, she said.
WIll Gullick will play Lyle, who appears in the first scene with the two couples. Gullick is a Junior and said he’s been acting for the past couple of years. He enjoys the friendships made in the theater program, and said he’s looking forward to this year’s competition. Gullick performed in last year’s competition, and said that the experience could get stressful at times, as there are strict time limits.
Madison Ecker, also a junior, plays Liberty, who wants to move to the city while her boyfriend, Corey, wants to stay in his hometown. Senior Dalton Nadeau plays Corey. Both look forward to the competition.
Ecker said it will be a good experience for the freshmen. Her favorite part of acting is the ability to learn about and inhabit a unique character’s personality and bring them to life, she said.
Nadeau was supposed to go to the state contest last year, but ended up “chickening out,” which worked in his favor since many participants ended up getting sick last year, he said. He has only been acting for a year, but is also a musician and enjoys the experience of performing onstage.
Shanelle Rossignol, a freshman, plays Beth, who is spending time with her father who has Alzheimer’s and trying to refresh his memory by going on a fishing trip. Rossignol, who has been acting since she was 7, said acting gives her a chance to be a completely different person.
Freshman Cameron Jandreau plays Al, a father who wants to bring his family into the wilderness and, despite their misgivings, tries to make the experience as fun as possible.
An actor since the sixth grade, he has mixed emotions about the upcoming competition, he said. He’s nervous that something might go wrong on stage, but excited to be with friends and to see the other plays.
Sophomore Elijah Hayes plays Stanley, a troubled teen who is into heavy metal and punk music, who runs away to the dock to escape his home environment. He’s been acting for a couple of years, but usually plays comedic characters, he said. This will be his first serious role.
He is looking forward to the upcoming competition, as he broke his leg last year and could not attend.
The group will perform “Our Place” at 7 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Sunday, Feb. 26, 27 and 29, at the Fort Kent Community High School Cafetorium. Tickets are $8 for adults and $5 for students.
They will perform at the regional festival in Brewer next Friday at 2 p.m.
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