March 4, 2024 By Bridget Sandler, photos by Teresa Pikoulas
For the 2024 METG Festival season Hingham High School Drama Club brought the one-act play, Secondary Ed, to life with a dynamic cast, stellar set, and amazing sound and light design. The Massachusetts Education Theater Guild Festival, primarily referred to as the METG Festival, is a competition of one-act plays from high school drama departments throughout the entire state. Festival is a day of celebrating the arts in an encouraging and unique environment that is not found anywhere else. Throughout the day students see upwards of six plays and enjoy socializing with hundreds of new people. This year Hingham competed at Bourne High School against some incredible performances. We ultimately took home awards in Stage Management, presented to the entire club, Calling Stage Management, presented to Stella Huleatt, and two awards for Excellence in Acting, for Bridget Sandler and Timothy Bevens. Congratulations to the winners and everyone else in the cast and crew!
The show Secondary Ed is a nuanced exploration of a high school environment. The vignette-style show covers topics that range from average teenage angst to the tragic reality of gun violence in schools across America. The show strayed from typical media which usually follows the perspective of students and instead focuses on the struggles teachers face. A major aspect of the show was the unfair scrutiny and criticism educators face while trying to simply make a difference in student’s lives.
In addition to performing at the METG Festival HHS Drama has an annual Anna Quinlivan Preview Performance for the community as a whole. The preview is in honor of former student Anna Quinlivan, who deeply loved Festival during her time in the HHS Drama Club. Along with a way to share Secondary Ed with the public the preview is the biggest fundraising opportunity, at HHS, for the Anna Quinlivan Scholarship. The scholarship awards money to an HHS graduate who participated in backstage crew during their time in high school. Donations to her scholarship are accepted year-round @AnnaQuinlivanHCMTScholarship on Venmo.