‘It’s a really big deal’: Middleboro hosts state theater competition for the first time since 2003 win
Mar 2, 2024
James Baldwin interprets Arthur Roeder in “Radium Girl” at Middleboro High School. Photos by Middleboro Public Schools.
The protagonist of the plot, Grace Fryer, interpreted by Envy Blumenthal.
Kathryn Schaub, interpreted by Ashley Soule, and Grace Fryer, are female factory workers who suffer the consequences of radiation poisoning.
Grace Fryer and her mother, played by Annabelle Carbone.
The curtain closed with a dramatic final scene.
A Middleboro student plays a reporter who gives publicity to the factory workers’ lawsuit.
MIDDLEBORO – Middleboro High School welcomed casts and crews from six schools in the area on Saturday, March 2, to participate alongside it in the preliminary round of the 2024 Massachusetts Educational Theater Guild drama festival.
It is the first time since winning the competition nearly two decades ago that Middleboro has hosted the statewide theater festival, according to faculty members. Thanks to a new facility, it was able to be the gathering point again for nearby schools to compete.
Students from Milton High School, Taunton High School, Boston College High School, Attleboro High School, Ursuline Academy, Duxbury High School and Middleboro High School competed against each other in the Wayne M. Caron Memorial Auditorium with the hope of moving onto the semifinals on Sunday, March 9.
Each school had 10 minutes to set the stage and 40 minutes to perform their play. The Middleboro cast performed “Radium Girls,” a play about American female factory workers in the 1920s who contracted radiation poisoning from painting radium watch dials.
Middleboro wrapped up its production in 38 minutes and 17 seconds. After the curtain closed, Middleboro High School drama teacher and alum Sam Mosher felt good about how his students performed.
“It was fantastic,” Mosher said. “We could not have had a better cast, crew or drama director.”
Mosher coordinated the competition, but Hannah Bradley, another Middleboro alumni, was the festival director. According to Bradley, today was her cast’s “best performance yet.”
“Hosting the festival is a really big deal,” Bradley remarked. “It’s always tough to go to other schools and see what great facilities they have, so it’s nice that this year our kids have people coming in and commenting on how lucky they are to have such a great space.”
The school’s auditorium was renovated as part of a reconstruction project that was completed in 2021.
According to staff, the limitations of the old theater had prevented Middleboro from serving as the meeting ground for the competition since 2003, when it won the competition with the performance of “Lily’s Purple Plastic Purse.” The fact that the kids were able to perform on their own turf made all the difference, said Bradley.
The event on Saturday gave the high school the opportunity to showcase its state-of-the-art building, and also, honor the legacy of someone instrumental to Middleboro drama department and the design of the new performing arts center: Dani Duggan.
Duggan, who lost her battle to cancer in 2022, was a beloved Middleboro drama teacher and faculty member.
“She never hosted [the drama] festival because it wasn’t something we could do in our old building,” explained Mosher.
“She always used to joke that we never would,” he said. “I guarantee that if she were here, however, she would be so proud of what we are doing.”
However, despite the best efforts of Middleboro High School thespians, Middleboro will not continue to the next round. The winners of the preliminaries at Middleboro High School are Milton High School, Boston College High School and Attleboro High School.
