PARIS — When members of Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School’s drama club take to the boards March 7, they will be hanging an elephant.
OHCHS’s production of “Elephant’s Graveyard” will be its entry in this year’s Maine Regional Drama Festival in Skowhegan, scheduled March 6-7.
The annual Maine Drama Council competition pits high schools across the state against each other in what is drama’s equivalent of a championship tournament. Schools compete at a regional level first, with the winners of those tournaments moving on to compete for the state title.
The group of 23 OHCHS actors will take the stage to tell the story of the only known lynching of an elephant in U.S. history. Blending recorded facts and oral legend, the story of “Mary,” a circus pachyderm who crushed one of her handlers in a parade down Main Street in Erwin, Tenn., in 1916, explores the deep-seated American craving for spectacle, violence and revenge.
Mary’s accidental killing of one of the circus workers set the town on edge and led to her eventual execution, by hanging, using a local crane.
“It’s a story about the American experience,” said Corrine Turner, in her fourth year as the school’s drama coach. “We have people in a southern town just before World War I and not far from the Great Depression, clinging to a certain way of life, when this outside element breezes in and creates chaos.”
The story, on one level, reflects the tense race relations that have festered in the south since after the Civil War. While on another, broader level, it speaks to American’s propensity for violence and celebrity worship.
“This town’s people, stuck as they are in deep poverty, hunger for something bigger than themselves. Something to take their minds off their dreary existence, when the circus arrives,” explained Turner. “But when the circus’ main attraction kills a man and spills blood on their Main Street, they turn vengeful and demand retribution.”
OHCHS thespians have been working since before Christmas break to bring the play, written by George Brant, to life. They performed the show twice for the public on Feb. 20 and 21, with a panel of guest judges watching that second night and offering critiques, in the same manner that the students will be receiving at the festival.
“It’s important, like any sports team, that the drama club practice as closely as they can in the way they will be asked to perform. Having the guest judges here was a way for the students to get outside input from someone other than me. At this point I’m sure they’re sick of hearing my voice,” Turner said.
Tournament rules require each performance to run no longer than 40 minutes, with a 5-minute set-up time before the show and a 5-minute strike at the end. Any overage in time will disqualify a team.
Drama clubs are judged in numerous categories, including acting, set design and lighting.
OHCHS Drama will compete against schools from Skowhegan, Mt. Blue and Leavitt at the Class A level. Class B schools Monmouth, Carrabec, Spruce Mountain, Madison and Poland will compete at that level during the same regional.
The Class A winners from regional festivals in Skowhegan, Falmouth, Oceanside, Brewer, Lawrence, Thorton and Freeport will meet for the state title in Bangor.
Last year, OHCHS came within just a couple points from heading to the state festival with their performance of “Dear Harvey,” a play about gay activist Harvey Milk, the first openly homosexual person to be elected into public office who was assassinated in 1978 in California. The performance by OHCHS was lauded by judges as one of the most powerful they saw that weekend.
OHCHS won the state title in 2001 under the direction of long-time drama coach Sally Jones, who has since retired. Turner, who was a drama student of Jones, is hoping to bring the coveted title back to Oxford Hills.
“Elephant’s Graveyard” is what is referred to as an ensemble piece, wherein the actors play an equal part and there are no traditional leads.
Isaiah Alexander (ringmaster), Jacob Michaud (trainer), Adrianna Twitchell (ballet girl), Gable Chase (tour manager), Colin Yenco (strongman), Kari Narhuminti (clown) and Karleigh Twitchell and Luiza Rubio (performers) are the circus members.
Justice Pittman (hungry townsperson), Jacob Tardiff (marshal), Kiesha Jackson (muddy townsperson), Sam Otterson (preacher), Dimitri DiBiase (steam shovel operator), Maria Commoss (young townsperson), and Dan Garber (engineer) each play speaking parts in the town, rounded out by a cast of townspeople Mitchell Lisowski, Dana Casey, Morgan MacNeil, Colby Donovan, Mae Gosnell, Maddie Prentiss, and Jacob Marcous-Downing.
Sydney Bivens rounds out the cast by playing several instruments that emulate various sound effects.
Behind the cast is a crew of Christian Ricci (lighting), Ty Wyman (stage management), Natalie Livak, Ellie Bessette and Ashley Gilbert (assistant stage managers), and Sydney Bivens (makeup).
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