Met Fest is an annual contest throughout the school district for drama ten and eleven students. Every year, schools from all over the district compete against one another with an original or a re-creation of an existing play.
This year, Met Fest is hosted at the River’s Edge Theater here at Riverside. Met Fest has been running annually for 25 years and aims to pull together the entire school district’s theater community. Every year, each school either writes or recreates a play that they feel represents them as a whole. Although mainly directed by the drama teacher, sometimes, such as in Centennial Secondary’s case, a parent has written the play and offered to direct, meanwhile the drama teacher is their sponsor. There is no correct way to go about Met Fest. It is a festival of creation and artistic meaning that brings a community together.
The dedicated students of Acting Eleven and Twelve are aware that once taking the course, they will have to perform in Met Fest and give drama teacher, Nicole Roberge at least two weeks of their time to really perfect the play of their choice. The dedicated team not only includes actors but the many sound and light technicians that will be helping with the effects of the play to add a more realistic touch.
Riverside’s choice of play this year is going to be an adaptation of The Odyssey which was originally a Greek epic poem. “Our adaptation parallels Homer’s, The Odyssey with the current geopolitical tensions. The audience will probably notice some subtle indicators that we are making a statement about what we see around us today,” says Roberge.
The Met Fest plays will be anywhere between ten minutes and sixty minutes long, depending on the school. Riverside is only one of eight schools that will participate. Every year the Met Fest hires a professional adjudicator to select a school that he/she feels will advance to the provincial level. Not only does the adjudicator advance the winning school, but also gives great feedback, which can be a great learning opportunity. They discuss what they saw, what can be approved upon and what the big picture ‘takeaways’ really are.
Last year, Riverside’s play advanced to the provincials, and hopefully the same happens this year.
If you want to check out the Met Fest hosted here at Riverside, it plays through December first to third, at 7pm.
