Last month Katie Croyle, Bromfield Class of 2007, was shocked to learn that her former high school would not be participating in the statewide Drama Festival run by the Massachusetts Educational Theater Guild, a first in 62 years.
Since 1951 Bromfield students have participated in Drama Fest, which includes 115 one-act plays produced by member high schools. The competition is organized on three levels—preliminary, semifinal, and state—and for many years Bromfield has been a highly competitive participant.
The decision not to participate was made at the start of the year, and students and parents were told then of the change. But word of the decision was slow in reaching Bromfield drama alums, who reacted with dismay as the news spread through Facebook.
This week Bromfield Principal Jim O’Shea defended the decision, telling the Press that freeing the resources previously devoted to Drama Fest, would allow the theater program to move in new directions.
‘I had to say something’
Croyle, now a professional actor and theater teacher in Philadelphia, said she wanted to do more. “I had forgotten how much Drama Fest affected me … I would never have gone into acting without that program,” she said in a recent interview. “It was such an important thing for me in that time in my life, I had to say something!”
Encouraged by members of the community and with help from her boyfriend, Steve Hayward, Croyle drafted a letter expressing her upset over Bromfield’s withdrawal and posted it to Facebook. In the days that followed more than 175 former Bromfield alumni, parents, and drama educators commented.
Chris Picardi wrote, “I still have my technical award from 1984 framed as I received it!”
Stow Road resident Ruby Diane Senkowski wrote that Bromfield’s reputation at the Drama Festival contributed to her choice to move to Harvard. “Competing at the METG annual festival sparked a passion for acting in my son and quite literally turned his life around,” she writes. Ben Senkowski, Class of 2013, is now pursuing a BFA in acting at UConn.
An experience relevant
to future professional lives
Jenny Levison, Class of 1981, who went on to earn a masters degree in dramatic writing from NYU, commented: “I’ve worked in theater and other performance for a good 30 years now, and like so many other people, got my start at Bromfield.”
“The festival wasn’t the only important thing that galvanized us,” Levison continued, “but it was an unparalleled look into the professionalism, pacing, importance of all the jobs, and deep bonding that are central to not just a life in theater, but to most people’s professional lives in their chosen fields.”
Ellie Cherington, Class of 2007 wrote, “I never played a major role in a Drama Festival play, nor did I ever make a name for myself as an actress, but Drama Festival was one of the best experiences I had in high school.”
Croyle says she was not expecting such an outpouring of support. “I had absolutely no idea that so many people would respond; more than 200 people have written beautiful things, I’ve gotten emails from people who don’t have Facebook, and I was totally blown away.”
Former director responds
Michael McGarty, former director of Bromfield’s theater program, says that Bromfield’s attendance at Drama Fest was a legacy he inherited and chose to continue. For 34 years he participated in Drama Fest because it was a chance for students to be exposed to hundreds of plays and socialize with students from other towns, he told the Press.
“If students started Drama Festival their freshman year, then by the time they graduated they’d have seen 100 to 125 plays—which is what many people see in a lifetime,” McGarty commented. “You can’t do that in a classroom … Students can expand academically, but there is also a social level.” Many students in Harvard know each other from kindergarten through grade 12, McGarty says. Drama Fest allows them to “go off and see students from Brockton or Cambridge—a part of society that they don’t normally see.”
More than a weekend of shows
For Croyle, “Drama Fest is more than a weekend of shows; it’s a tradition, and it’s a really great thing for students who didn’t know they were interested in arts.” She mentions that many people touched by Drama Fest were not actors but curious students who wanted to help with costumes or try to build a set. As an educator, she sees early exposure to the arts to be of the utmost importance. Through high school events, “we can cultivate more people who have a lifelong appreciation for the arts.”
“I feel bad for the kids; the seniors have been doing Festival for three years and all of sudden they’re denied it,” said McGarty this week. Since learning that Bromfield was not entered in the preliminaries for Drama Fest, many alumni have reached out to him. He says he “was humbled by the whole thing, watching what has come from the kids and what they messaged to me individually. That was rewarding; it validates what I’ve spent half of my life doing.”
A community tradition
Croyle is saddened by the changes. “The whole community rallied around this thing, and it’s not even a sporting event,” she says. “I feel so lucky to be born and raised in this town and to be a part of this community,” she wrote in her open letter on Facebook. “To be part of a town that promotes artistic vision, hard work, and risk-taking in our youth … A town where, even if you don’t have a child in the school, you genuinely care about the Festival play and Bromfield’s involvement.”
In her Facebook posting, Croyle took note that current theater director George Kendall had undertaken new drama initiatives since his arrival, including an outdoor Shakespeare play. This year he plans to do a 1940s “Twelfth Night” and feature an outdoor barbeque as part of the ticket package. But she remains critical of the DramaFest decision. While the new director “may have been blind to what the school’s participation in the festival means to the community … the administration certainly was not,” she wrote. “Its lack of involvement in this situation is upsetting and unsettling, and I hope they are reading this letter.”
A chance for a different direction
This week Bromfield Principal Jim O’Shea told the Press that he and Kendall had discussed the Drama Fest last year as they made plans for the 2013-2014 program. Kendall “was putting a lot of time and resources into Drama Fest, and he said he might want to take the program in a different direction,” O’Shea recalled. “I supported him with that,” A previous interim director had also raised a concern over the time, energy, and resources involved with participating in Drama Fest, O’Shea noted, and he wanted to allow Kendall to develop a new comprehensive and creative program. The drama students and parents were informed at the beginning of the year that they would not be participating.
Administration supports
Kendall’s direction
O’Shea praised Kendall’s creative direction for the drama program, noting the past week’s “3x3x3” plays and the new Shakespeare in the Park program. “Historically the drama program has been A++,” said O’Shea. “We see that continuing under Mr. Kendall. He has a lot of new venues for students to shine. He is a really solid drama director; he respects the traditions, but we know the program has room to grow.”
“Everyone is aware that our students have a great experience [at Drama Fest],” said O’Shea. “It is a program that we want to continue to look at. We are not closing the door and walking away forever…but we want to give the new director an opportunity to follow his passion.”
