On March 5th Leominster High School hosted seven other schools for the preliminary round of the METG One Act Play Competition, where they did the production of James and the Giant Peach .

In these one act play competitions, participants must set up and take down their set in less than 5 minutes, and their play must be less than 40 minutes. Both of these were done successfully by Leominster and they were selected to move on to the semi-finals. Not only were they selected to move on to the semi-finals but several of the Leominster theatre program’s participants were chosen for the following awards: 

Excellence in acting for the role of the Centipede- Nathan Valeri 

Excellence in acting for the role of James- Gianna Doherty

Excellence in acting for the role of the Spider- Isabella Bible  

Technical excellence for hair and makeup design- Pyro Regino & Isabella Bible 

Technical excellence in costume design- Kylie Perrault & Izzy Lavoie 

Following this competition, Leominster  presented this production to the public.

They started with a quick introduction by LHS Senior JaLissa Pyle, the assistant director. They then began the show with the setting up of the set. They completed it in almost 5 minutes exactly.

All of the set construction crew including LHS Juniors Leah Levensailor, Olivia Byrom, Stefani Galeano, Katherine Ardagna, Ren Patel, Alyssa Moulton, LHS Sophomores Amalie Lupien, Scott Forteza, LHS Seniors Christopher White, Lucie de Gibon, and LHS Freshmen Emma Perrault, and Abigail Byrom, worked together effortlessly to bring the set to life.

The acting of all characters was amazing. Every actor embodied the British accent very well.

The spider, played by LHS Senior Isabella Bible, has a very hard accent to copy, but it was made an easy job for her. Everyone spoke clearly and loudly, which made the play really easy to follow. Each of the parts were matched very well with the actors, and each actor was able to really embody their character’s personality.

The show was very comical and got the audience laughing quite a bit.

Costuming added a lot to the show as well. The two Aunt’s outfits were a great representation of their crazy attitudes.

The makeup was subtle, but fit perfectly.

Overall, the hard work that these kids have done over the past months has really shown in this production. It was put together extremely well and was a very entertaining watch.