There is absolute silence in the auditorium. Everyone waits with bated breath, lost in the electric anticipation. The judge at the podium clears his throat. “The last school moving on,” he announces, “….Hingham High School.”

Before he can finish the name, Hingham’s cast and crew erupt into celebratory applause and joyful screams. But it wasn’t only the phenomenal acting that got them here; creating the world of Poe onstage was a massive undertaking.

Festival, commonly called “Festie” by just about everyone working on it, is a short one-act play that the club works on to compete with other schools. They then perform it in a preliminary round of the competition, which this year is taking place in Duxbury. The show then advances to semifinals and finals.

Preliminaries were on February 27th, with Hingham’s Drama Club advancing to semifinals, which take place on March 19.

The piece this year is Shuddersome: Tales of Poe, a compilation of the works of Edgar Allan Poe, as adapted by Lindsay Price. When asked about her play selection, Ms. Sisk explains “you read the play, you know if it’s right or not. It’s an instinctual kind of thing… You just know.”. “I think one of the things I love about this so much is that it brings very classic Poe stories in a fresh, different way.”

While the actors work hard to bring the words of Poe to life on stage, the backstage crew, makeup crew, lighting and sound directors, set builders, and customers work just as hard to create a tangible world for the actors to perform in. This year, the set builders created 18 set pieces and three decorative pieces that resemble gears of a clock, to add to the desired steampunk aesthetic. The set was striking and garnered an award for “Excellence in Set Design,” presented to set creator Rose Flynn.