Video
Ann Davignon, Head Drama Momma
Trevor Flagg, Technical Director
Stephen Gaffey - second interview
Lauren Skiffington, Alumna
Luke Sisto, Freshman
Amber Arnold, Freshman
Trevor Foehl - second interview
Anna Sebastino, Alumna
David Carrier - First interview
Jamie Lee McNary - second interview
David Carrier - Second Interview
Jamie Lee McNary - first interview
Connor Johnson
Mike Davignon, 3rd grade
Maggie Dente - our student president - interview 2
Joesph Luczynski - interview two
Mike Davignon - interview two
Samantha Davignon
Joe Luczynski - interview one
Maggie Dente, Drama Team President interview one
Keith Davis, Drury teacher
Trevor Foehl - first interview
Blue videos are those recorded by Doc.
Red videos are those recorded by Dr. Darlene Radin
Green video is by Connor Johnson
Emma Gregory
Lindsey Keating
The Diviners - The Trailer
by Jim Leonard Jr.
Carlee Huttle
Dr. Radin is criticized.
Lauren Skiffington
Connor Johnson
The Diviners Last Scene
Scene in The Diviners. Actors are Cameron Lapine and Emily Eastman.
Scene in The Diviners with Norma Henshaw, Goldie Short and Luella Bennett
The Theatre Etiquette Police
This film, directed, filmed and edited by Drury Drama Team President Connor Johnson was the Drama Team's winning entry in the International Thespian Festival - 2011.
Drury Drama Team wins top film prize
By Jennifer Huberdeau
Posted: 05/07/2011 12:26:15 AM EDT
Drury Drama Team Director Dr. Len Radin and senior... (Jennifer Huberdeau/North Adams Transcript)
Saturday May 7, 2011
North Adams Transcript
NORTH ADAMS -- The chances of creating an award-winning three-minute film on theater etiquette for the annual International Thespian Festival seemed slim to members of the Drury Drama Team earlier this year, as equipment failures and illness plagued the production.
But in the end, the team not only delivered its first short film, "Theater Etiquette Police," to the festival contest in the nick of time, but the film also received first prize in the society’s inaugural film contest.
The film, shot in the style of a 1920s silent movie, instructs audiences how to behave when in the theater -- not to talk or eat, not to make inappropriate noises or use electronic devices.
As part of the prize, the team’s film will be played on the main stage of the annual week-long festival in Lincoln, Neb. at the end of June. It can be viewed online at www.
drurydrama.com.
"I really began to believe the entire project was cursed," senior Connor Johnson, who directed, edited and composed a score for the original three-minute film, said Friday. "We were using a video camera that only worked half of the time. When we were scheduled to shoot the film, I came down with bronchitis and was out for a week. When we did film it, everything seemed to go well until I later discovered the camera only recorded the first 5 seconds of it. We had to reshoot everything the next week."
only a few days left until the April 1 deadline, the film was completed and shipped out -- to the wrong location.
"We had one day until the deadline and I was convinced it wouldn’t make it," Johnson said. "Then I got a call from Doc [team director Len Radin] confirming it had made it."
Despite everything that went wrong in the production, Radin said the drama team’s unique film did everything right.
"We were competing against about 3,000 high schools," he said. "Our competition includes some really major art schools and magnet schools in the arts. There were schools competing from Los Angeles that have access to Hollywood studios; schools from New York City that have access to Broadway; schools from Chicago. All we had was a camera and an idea."
Junior Luke Sisto, who appears in the film as a "Keystone Cop," came up with the idea for the silent film.
"We were looking for something that would be original -- that would catch the eye of the judges as they were sifting through thousands of entries," he said. "We were sure most of the films would be full of tropes and shot like standard public service announcements. We wanted something unique."
It was during a history unit on the 1920s that the idea for a silent film -- shot in grainy sepia tones interspersed with caption cards and paired with tin piano music -- came to him.
"We didn’t have a script," Johnson said. "We had a page of ideas written down, based on the criteria for the film, but that was it. We improvised as we went along."
While the award comes with a $300 prize, Radin said the team views the real reward as having their film shown to some 3,000 participants on the festival’s main stage.
"We’ve taken 16 to 17 plays to the festival in the past and will perform a one-act play this year, all of which have been performed on the festival’s smaller stage," he said. "We can’t afford to produce a play on the main stage. Schools that perform on the main stage bring Broadway-style sets with full orchestras. Productions like that costs schools about $80,000. We can’t do that, so for us, this is a big deal."
To reach Jennifer Huberdeau, email
jhuberdeau@thetranscript.com.
The article and image below was on the front page of The North Adams Transcript on may 7, 2011
The video below won the Thespian award! A front page article from the North Adams Transcript may be seen here.
