The New Hampshire Educational Theatre Guild’s annual high school festival will return this weekend with a regional competition at Concord High School.
Each school must choose a play that’s no longer than 40 minutes in length to perform before judges and their peers.
On Saturday, set-up begins at sunrise for the students, but shows the public can view begin 9:35 a.m. with Merrimack High School presenting Snappy’s Happy Half Hour followed at 10:35 a.m. by Pinkerton Academy with Everybody. Tickets for this block of two shows are $7.
After lunch, John Stark Regional High School will present The Other Room at 1:55 p.m., Portsmouth Christian Academy will stage These Shining Lives at 2:55 and Exeter High School will perform Fashion at 3:55 p.m. Tickets for this block of three shows are $10.
Ending the day, Concord High School will present 26 Pebbles at 6:45 p.m. Tickets for this show, or any individual show throughout the day, is $5.
A day pass to view all six shows is $15.
Following each block of shows will be a student forum and director’s critique.
Jillian LaBrecque, a John Stark senior, is directing The Other Room as her senior capstone project.
“I wanted to share it with an even bigger audience,” she said about the play, written by Ariadne Blayde, that tells the story of a brilliant student astronomer who has autism and a popular girl in his school who also likes astronomy. “The story tells of the boy’s struggle to connect with the world and her desire to better understand him.”
Concord’s selection, 26 Pebbles, was written by Eric Ulloa, who conducted interviews with members of the community in Newtown and crafted them into an exploration of gun violence and a small town shaken by a horrific event.
Laconia High School will host the next regional on March 14 with Belmont High School, While Shakespeare Slept; Franklin High School, The Magic of Madness; Gilford High School, These Shining Lives; Hollis-Brookline High School, Now That April’s Here; Laconia High School, Small Actors; and Windham High School, Perfect Score.
On March 21, there will be two regional sessions.
At Kingswood Regional High School there will be Coe-Brown Northwood Academy, Eurydice; Kearsarge Regional High School, Almost Maine; Kingswood, The Yee-Ha-Ha! Revue; Oyster River, Dark Road; and White Mountains Regional High School, Our Place.
In Salem, there will be Bedford High School, How Does a Thing Like that Get Started?; Founders Academy, Painted Blind; Granite State Arts Academy, The One-Act Play Disaster; LEAF Charter School, Sorry Wrong Number; Nashua High School South, Internet is a Distract – Oh Look A Kitten!; and Salem High School, Back to the Summer.
The state festival will be held on April 3 and 4 at Gilford High School.
For more information, visit nhetg.org.