For over 25 years, the FHS Players have been traveling around the state and competing in the New Hampshire Educational Theater Guild (NHETG) One Act Festival. There is normally a Regional Level Festival with between 8-10 schools from a general area of NH and then 2-3 of those schools move onto the State Level for a two day theater festival with between 10- 12 schools across the state of NH. Each school prepares a 40 minute one act, loads up their sets and technical needs, and performs in another school's theater space in front of professional adjudicators. They are evaluated, reviewed live and in person, participate in student forums where they discuss the shows together with their peers, and more than anything else, spend quality time learning from and bonding with other students who share the same passion for live theater and performing arts.
When Covid hit in March 2020, it put a very abrupt halt to an original one act that two seniors (Madison Clark and Riley Roper) had written for the festival that year. Just a week before they were supposed to share their work with others, it was cancelled and all live performances were shut down across the country. In 2021, the NHETG Board decided they needed to try to do something for the students and created an online version of the festival. A group of FHS students gathered at the Opera House on a Saturday in March of 2021, to watch other schools online submissions of 5 minute scenes that they had prepared and then participated in online student forum discussions. The performances had been submitted earlier and professional adjudicators had filmed their evaluations that were shared.
Now, after two years of not having a "normal" festival experience, the students are finally able to participate once again. It's a smaller statewide participation this year as many schools are still dealing with covid protocols and ramifications that made it too challenging to participate and some schools struggled with busing. BUT FHS is back and going!! Our students have been rehearsing since December under the directing of Mr. Adair. They are performing a comedy entitled "The Chilli Haunts Me Still" featuring Olivia Sylvester and Noah Alers-Alers. The show is being stage managed by Briahna LaFlamme and other performers include Andrew Gagnon, Kadance Laro, Kayley Sargent, Zoe Nagle, Kaia Roper and Libby Femenella. Their tech crew includes Leah Cote, Thomas Fifield and Andy Emery. The students will travel to Kingswood Regional on April 1 for their tech rehearsal and then perform on April 2. The performances are open to the public and people are encouraged to attend and support the continued hard work of these amazing students!!