West Springfield High School’s Advanced Acting class has been working on a project to give back to the community for many months now. Starting last February, drama coach and teacher Mrs. Svec was approached by the district’s curriculum director, Tim Connor, who asked if her students would be interested in working closely with the elementary school children for their summer reading work. The project, called “One Book One Community”, had students from all elementary schools grades 1-4 read the same book over the summer, and the high school students would perform a play for the students when they returned in the fall. Ecstatic at the offer, Mrs. Svec’s class began spending all of their class time working on this project. They were told to read the chosen novel, “Turtle in Paradise”, over their February vacation. Once the book was completed, students were given the task to turn it into a complete script that would be performed in front of the children in the fall. They even traveled to the elementary schools last June to perform a “teaser” for the kids, which they wrote by themselves as well. Acting students came to the school multiple times throughout the summer to rehearse, stayed after school and worked through their study periods in order to make this performance the best it could be. On September 26, elementary schools Tatham and Coburn filled the auditorium seats, while Fausey, Mittneague and Memorial schools saw the show on September 28. Students erupted in smiles and laughter during the production on both days, and they were all very engaged in the show. This was a trial run for the “One Book One Community” project, and it was very successful at bringing the community and schools together thanks to the Advanced Acting class.
Cast and Crew: Will Harrington, Colin Scully, Luke Dukette, Earl Rice, D.J. Goyette, Logan Terrenzi, Jarrett Allen, Dailen Hicks, Ceara Bowler, Hailey MacDonald, Nina Bishop, Teaanou Gonzalez, Jason Umamaheswaran, Lucas Scalzo, Sierre Palazzi
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