It was early during the final rehearsal before the big day. As the lights went down on the J. Everett Collins Center stage, five nervous actors muttered aloud together, all wondering similar thoughts. "What was our time? How long was that? Did we make the cut?"
Suddenly, the beep of a stopwatch sounded and the unmistakable voice of director Susan Choquette cut through the darkness: "40 minutes and 51 seconds, friends."
The murmurs quickly melted into long groans.
Andover High student actors recently participated in the Massachusetts High School Drama Guild Festival, an annual event encompassing more than 100 public, private, and parochial schools. Not only is it a showcase of each school's talent - it is also a heated competition in which each school performs a timed, one-act play that is judged and compared to the others in each individual round. Each play must clock at no more than 40 minutes, with an additional five minutes to put up and strike the set, or else it faces automatic disqualification.
Clocking in at 40:51 meant there were still 51 seconds to cut.
This year, Andover High School entered a performance of Tina Howe's "Birth and After Birth," an absurdist play about those universal ups and downs of childbirth and life afterwards. Although AHS did not progress past its preliminary two weekends ago, a great deal of time and effort was poured into the production. The AHS actors themselves were required to do lengthy research on both the absurdist genre and the piece itself.
"Rehearsing a 40-minute show naturally became quite repetitive for all involved, but it was necessary. Everything had to be perfect. Our biggest obstacle was a combination of time constraint and memorization," said Choquette. "The genre is so challenging in itself - everything jumps around."
The timing of "Birth and After Birth" varies greatly from minute to minute, and is laced with moments of both darkness and light humor. Additionally, the cast was extremely small - only five actors - with lots of fast-paced dialogue, which left little room for error. For some, this immense amount of pressure is what creates the thrill of festival.
"I've always loved small cast shows," said Andover High junior actress Chelsea Frei. "Fest is such a learning experience because it's a lot of one-on-one time with the director."
Actress Karen McNamee, following in her older sister Nancy's footsteps, broke out into the spotlight this year. A sophomore at Andover High, McNamee acknowledged what many consider to be one of the festival's greatest challenges: standing out in the crowd. "Since there are so many schools being judged and compared...you have to make people remember your show."
AHS sophomore Sean McCall loves the entire concept of the MHSDG Festival. "I'm a competitive person," he said, "so this is just a lot of fun for me."
Conor Richardson, a fellow sophomore and no stranger to Merrimack Valley theater, nodded in approval. "I enjoy Festival because we get to meet new people from all different schools, too."
As the only senior in the production, this ending to the winter theater season has been bittersweet for Joseph Downes-Berry.
"I've enjoyed the story as well as the people I'm working with," he said. They're all excellent actors, and I'm honored to have this show be one of my last at Andover High School."
The Cast
Joseph Downes-Berry: Jeffrey Freed, anthropologist, studies exotic and primitive children
Chelsea Frei: Mia Freed, fellow anthropologist, wife, and childless by choice
Conor Richardson: Nicky Apple, tantrum-prone 4-year-old
Sean McCall: Bill Apple, doting father
Karen McNamee: Sandy Apple, doting mother, cousin of Jeffrey Freed
