Published March 27, 2025
By MAUREEN DOHERTY
NORTH READING — The Masquers travel to Boston tonight to compete in the State Finals of the Massachusetts Educational Theater Guild’s One-Act Drama Festival.
“Cyrano de Bergerac” has already won multiple awards for the thespians and the crew in both the preliminary and semifinal rounds. The Masquers are currently ranked among the top 15 high school theater groups in the state, repeating the accolades earned by the Masquers in 2024 and 2023.
Performance dates and times are randomly drawn and NRHS is performing on the first night of the three-day festival, which is hosted by the Back Bay Events Center (the old John Hancock Hall). The Masquers will be the third of four schools competing tonight (March 27) between 5-8 p.m. Seven schools will compete on Friday, March 28 from noon to 8 p.m., followed by four performances on Saturday, March 29 from 12:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. The Drama Festival concludes with an awards ceremony on Saturday night at 8 p.m.
Tickets for general admission seating are available for all three days at metg.org/high-school-festival/2025-finals.html
PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE
Thursday, March 27: 5 PM: Milton H.S., “Too Many Daughters: A Jane Austen Parody;” 6 PM: St. John’s Prep, “The Secret in the Wings;” 7 PM: North Reading H.S., “Cyrano de Bergerac;” 8 PM: Acton-Boxborough Regional H.S., “Blithe Spirit.”
Friday, March 28: 12 PM: Joseph Case H.S., “Vox;” 1 PM: Weymouth H.S., “The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane;” 2 PM: Franklin H.S., “The Yellow Boat;” 3 PM: Westford Academy, “Stupid…Bird;” 6 PM: Stoughton H.S.: “Anon(ymous);” 7 PM: Wellesley H.S., “Small Mouth Sounds;” 8 PM: Peabody Veterans Memorial H.S.: “Clyde’s.”
Saturday, March 29: 12:30 PM: Burncoat H.S.,
“The Price;” 1:30 PM: Leominster H.S., “The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane;” 3 PM: Framingham H.S., “The Outsiders;” 4 PM: Brockton H.S., “The Fabulous Fable Factory;” 8 PM: Awards Ceremony.
ALL-STATE CONCERT SATURDAY
Also this weekend, the Massachusetts Music Educators Association will host its annual All-State Festival Concert at Boston’s Symphony Hall on Saturday, March 29 at 1 p.m.
Two North Reading High School students will be among the top high school musicians from across the state performing at the storied concert hall under the direction of prestigious guest conductors.
Junior Caitlin Milligan, who earned the best audition score in the state among the alto singers, will be singing with the All-State Choir. Junior Matt Capalbo, who earned the fifth highest score in the state for his trombone audition, will perform with the All-State Concert Band.
Both will travel to Worcester on Friday for a full day of rehearsals in the final preparation for Saturday’s concert. By sheer luck of the draw – literally – Capalbo will be participating in both events this weekend. He is the stage manager for “Cyrano de Bergerac” so if Masquers had drawn a performance date of either Friday or Saturday, he would have had had a difficult choice to make. The Masquers’ assistant stage manager, Adriana Gonzales, is also prepared to step into the role of stage manager for this production if it is necessary for any reason.
“This is a difficult situation every year,” admits Masquers Director Allison Kane. “Typically students have to choose one or the other. To be in All-State you can not miss the rehearsal. It’s only one day and missing it for any reason would mean you would not be prepared. The One Act, you never know if you are going to make it to states – there is a meeting the Sunday after the semifinals where the groups moving on randomly draw numbers to see the order they perform. Most have students who want to do both MMEA and METG, and if the groups were allowed to move around spots no one would be able to perform.”
Kane added, “We had 29 instrumental and choral students originally audition for districts back in November. Of those, we had nine vocalists and one instrumentalist make Senior Districts and of those 10, five had high enough scores to audition for All-State. Three decided not to audition and instead focus on the One Act. Both Caitlin and Matt chose to audition and we are so proud of the work they put in to be accepted!”
To purchase tickets for the All-State Concert at Symphony Hall ($20 general admission) go to: https://secure.bso.org/booking/production/bestavailable/27065