Well, let me tell ya ’bout this here Maine Drama Festival. It’s a big to-do, ya know? Lots of kids gettin’ all dressed up and actin’ like someone else. Sounds kinda silly, but they seem to like it.
I heard tell there’s more than a thousand of ’em, maybe even thirteen hundred, from all over Maine. All them high schools, like sixty-nine or seventy of ’em, sendin’ their young’uns. They been practicin’ and practicin’, gettin’ ready for this big show.
- It ain’t just one big show, mind you. They gotta go through these Regional competitions first.
- They have them in eight different places, like Brewer and Saco.
- I reckon it’s so’s all them kids don’t have to travel too far.
This year, they had them Regionals on March 8th and 9th, or maybe it was the 10th and 11th. I can’t rightly remember. But it was in March, that much I know. And then, if they’re good enough, they go on to the State Finals. That’s where the real fancy actin’ happens, I guess.
Now, they call it the Maine Drama Festival, but it ain’t just drama, not like the drama I see when my chickens get loose. It’s got all sorts of plays and shows. Some of it’s funny, some of it’s sad, some of it just makes you scratch your head and wonder what the heck is goin’ on. But them kids, they put their hearts into it, that’s for sure.
I heard tell they even got awards and such. Sponsored by the Maine somethin’ or other, Principals’ Association and the Maine Drama Council, I think. They give out ribbons and trophies, just like at the county fair. Only instead of the biggest pumpkin, it’s for the best actor or the best play or somethin’. I don’t rightly know how it all works, but it sounds fancy.
This ain’t just some newfangled thing, neither. They been doin’ this Maine Drama Festival for a long time, like eighty-one years or somethin’. That’s a lot of actin’, if you ask me. Imagine all them kids, all them costumes, all them lines they gotta remember. It’s enough to make your head spin.
They got these things called Class A and Class B. I ain’t sure what that means, but it sounds important. Maybe it’s like the big kids and the little kids, or the fancy schools and the not-so-fancy schools. Who knows? All I know is there’s a whole lotta fuss about it.
And the tech, oh my! They got a whole day just for tech stuff. Tech Saturday, they call it. That’s when they set up all the lights and the sound and whatever else they need. It’s more complicated than milkin’ a cow, I tell ya. They got dates for it all too, like March 4th for Tech Saturday, then Regionals, then another Tech Saturday for States, and then the big State Festival on March 24th and 25th.
Students sharing shows with audiences. It’s a big thank you to all them young’uns for doin’ their thing. Some schools even made it to the state finals, eight of them from Class A, they said. Five hundred or more kids competin’. That’s a lot of kids all in one place, makin’ believe.
So, that’s the Maine Drama Festival in a nutshell. A whole lotta kids, a whole lotta actin’, and a whole lotta fuss. But it seems to make ’em happy, so I guess it’s alright. It gives ’em somethin’ to do, keeps ’em outta trouble, maybe. And who knows, maybe one of them kids will go on to be a big star in Hollywood or somethin’. You never can tell.
Anyways, that’s all I know about it. It’s a big thing for them young’uns, this Maine Drama Festival. Keeps ’em busy, that’s for sure.
