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Andrew Turner, director of the Messalonskee Performing Arts Center, watches rehearsal Thursday in Oakland. The Messalonskee High School Players will compete in the 2026 Maine Drama Festival One-Act Play Finals the weekend of March 20-21. (Anna Chadwick/Staff Photographer)
Oakland high school drama club gets ready for Maine state finals
Photographer Anna Chadwick captures students on stage rehearsing the one-act play “The Lottery.”
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The Messalonskee High School Players plans to perform “The Lottery” at the 2026 Maine Drama Festival Class A States on March 26 at Windham High School.
The play is based on the Shirley Jackson short story about a village that conducts a peculiar lottery every year. The acclaimed short story, first published in the late 1940s, explores the dangers of blindly following tradition, the cruelty inherent in human nature, and the ease with which ordinary people succumb to mob mentality.
The MHS Players has been rehearsing since January and placed first last weekend against three other Class A teams with their production.
Messalonskee student Emerson Stratton, who plays Belva Summers in “The Lottery,” reads during a rehearsal Thursday at Messalonskee High School in Oakland. (Anna Chadwick/Staff Photographer)Messalonskee students Addison Karsten, left, and Eleanor Fairfield knit during a scene in “The Lottery” Thursday at Messalonskee High School in Oakland.Andrew Turner, director of the Messalonskee Performing Arts Center, instructs Sophie Deblois, who plays Mrs. Dunbar, on positioning during a rehearsal Thursday for “The Lottery” at Messalonskee High School in Oakland.Lyran Thomas Ubert, left, who plays Tommy, and Vanessa Merritt, who plays Dickie, enter the stage Thursday during a rehearsal for “The Lottery” at Messalonskee High School in Oakland.Andrew Turner, director of the Messalonskee Performing Arts Center, watches rehearsal Thursday in Oakland. The Messalonskee High School Players will compete in the 2026 Maine Drama Festival One-Act Play Finals the weekend of March 20-21.
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