Don’t call it competition, call it art

The Vermont Drama Festival, to be held Saturday and Sunday at Springfield High School, is far from a sporting event. Everybody wins in this activity, according to area high school acting directors.

http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20110408/NEWS01/704089941

Published April 8, 2011 in the Rutland Herald

Don’t call it competition, call it art

By Cristina Kumka

Do not call it a competition.

The Vermont Drama Festival, to be held Saturday and Sunday at Springfield High School, is far from a sporting event.

Everybody wins in this activity, according to area high school acting directors.

Three out of 12 acting groups that advanced from regional drama festivals held earlier this year throughout the state are from Rutland County — Mount St. Joseph Academy, Otter Valley Union High School and Mill River Union High School.

Each school will all do an hour-long play to earn one of two coveted spots at the New England Drama Festival in Massachusetts later this month.

Although only two Vermont schools can advance to the New England festival, the Vermont Drama Council is quick to not call it competitive.

The festival is administered by the council and sponsored by the Vermont Principals’ Association each year.

“We want to celebrate theater and have kids feel good about it,” said Cathy Archer, immediate past president of the council and Rutland High School’s theater director.

“At the regional and state level, schools should feel good about what they’ve done and not feel like losers.”

But it hasn’t always been that way, according to Archer.

The first Vermont Drama Festival was in 1931 and included three judges critiquing each school’s work in front of other teams of students.

About 30 years ago, the formation of the council changed all that.

The group adopted the Liz Lerman form of feedback — analysis of each school’s play that’s creator-centered, not observer-centered.

Lerman, a dancer, authored her own opinion of how to critique a work of art, including drama.

Students get praised for what they did right, they analyze their own work, opinions are given and the students work with one another in workshops to learn from each other.

The winning drama team is notified with a confidential letter to the director after the festival.

“The object is to get kids together, not compete against one another,” Archer said.

Twelve schools and what’s expected to be more than 300 students will compete at the state festival this year, compared to 10 schools last year.

The festival begins at 8 a.m. Saturday and continues through Sunday afternoon.

For more information, go to vpaonline.org or call 229-0547.

Otter Valley Union High School students will be performing “Upstate” at this weekend’s Vermont Drama Festival in Springfield, above. Below, Mill River Union High School recently rehearsed “The Crickets Sing,” directed by Peter Bruno.
Photo: Photo provided