Stage One Advances in DramaFest

Junior and senior English classes were invited to see Peabody's drama club, Stage One, perform their Drama Festival piece in school on Tuesday, February 23. The club got to show their peers what they are utilizing to compete with hundreds of other schools in Massachusetts. Later that week on Saturday, it was time for them to head off to North Reading High School and challenge seven other high schools. With their production of The Long Christmas Ride Home by Paula Vogel, Peabody High won the preliminary round of DramaFest and is moving on to the semi-final round.

The Long Christmas Ride Home is played out with the use of Japanese-style puppetry which, in fact, is written into the script. The 40 minute play depicts the traumatic events a family experiences that have an impact on three children as they grow older. Audiences who see it often experience an array of emotions and are left drawn back by the events that took place. Last year, Peabody High's drama club moved on all the way to the final round of DramaFest and won states with Eurydice by Sarah Ruhl. This year, they began the competition strongly allowing them to continue onto the second of three rounds. The semi-final will take place on March 19th at Norwell High School and we will soon see if Peabody will be, once again, moving onto the final round.