Fort Kent Community High School students ‘Exhibit’ winning drama skills

Fort Kent Community High School students Bailey O’Brien (left) and Riley Troyer perform in a Doug Clapp directed play at the University of Maine at Fort Kent Fox Auditorium on Tuesday, March 7. (Jessica Potila | SJVT/FhF)

FORT KENT, Maine — Fort Kent Community High School students proved to be skilled both onstage and backstage as they won awards for acting, set design and costume design at the Class B Regional Drama Festival one-act play competition at Stearns High School in Millinocket on Saturday, March 11.

Educator Doug Clapp directed the play, the comedy “Exhibit This!”, which the contemporary American playwright Luigi Januzzi wrote about Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibits which come alive one evening while the museum is closed. Renowned paintings and other famous works of art, dance, squabble, fall in love and philosophize in “Exhibit This!”

Storm Eirman won an All-Festival Cast award for his performance as Rafael. Riley Troyer won the same award for dual turns as Socrates and Ra. Eirman and his fellow cast/crewmate Jonathan Bauch won an award for set design. Bauch also won an individual award for costume design.

Prior to attending the competition, the students performed the play on their home stage in front of an audience of their CHS peers and Valley Rivers Middle School students on Tuesday, March 7. The young audience expressed their satisfaction with the performance by howling with laughter at every appropriate comedic moment.

Seventh-grade student Lucas Hebert said he enjoyed watching “Exhibit This!” Hebert cited the set decorations and the unique accents actors used when delivering their lines as highlights of the show. For example, Troyer played the mummy Ra with a convincing New Jersey dialect.

Hebert said he felt every actor turned out a strong performance.

“They were all pretty good,” he said.

Background music ranged from the eerie “Halloween” horror movie theme song, to the 1990s pop hit “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” and the “Star Wars” soundtrack.

Clapp expressed pride in his students prior to the regional competition.

“They’re just a great bunch,” he said.

The cast and crew of “Exhibit This!” included: Brendon Peace, Jonathan Bauch, Riley Troyer, Storm Eirman, Kaylee Carter, Bailey O’Brien, Caleb Anderson, Ian Albert, Alexis Wilson, Skyler Bernstein and Emma Saucier.