SAUGUS — Ali Mahon Paige hasn’t slept in weeks.
Mahon Paige, who has run the Saugus Middle School Drama Club with fellow teacher Erika DeFeo for nearly two decades now, said she often doesn’t sleep in the weeks leading up to a performance. And, with “BOTS!” set to open on Thursday, it’s been a stressful couple of weeks for the duo.
But now, Mahon Paige is at peace.
“The night before the show, I feel a sense of calm because, like, that’s it. That’s all I can do,” she said. “Hopefully, at that point in time, we’ve created enough ownership that they’re able to take it.”
“Wherever we’re at is where we’re at,” DeFeo added.
Mahon Paige oversees the on-stage portions of the program, while DeFeo supervises the crew. Three performances of the show will be held for the public, with a final show held specifically for 5th-graders at the Belmonte STEAM Academy, who come to the Middle/High School Complex to watch the performance.
Wednesday marked an important milestone for the show, its final dress rehearsal in the form of a preview show, with the show’s crew as its audience. The club features approximately 75 students between actors and crew, with predominantly 6th-grade students, though the cast has double the number of 8th-grade students from the previous year — two as opposed to one.
Mahon Paige explained that she and DeFeo began plotting the shows in the school year prior to the one where they will actually be performed, selecting musicals based on the students’ experience levels and the gender breakdown of actors. “Bots!” was the choice for this year partly because Mahon Paige had seen it performed at the Marblehead Little Theatre, where she is a youth program director.
With an increased push for STEM classes at the Middle School level, it seemed a perfect fit.
The show follows a robotics competition, and over the course of the competition, two kids from different teams form a bond, angering the other competitors — and drama ensues. During the show, the teams battle it out with a series of competitions, including playing basketball and going head to head for a rap battle.
While most students opted to either join the crew or the cast, Aubrey DeMonte simply could not decide between the two and committed to both roles.
“Just couldn’t decide,” DeMonte said. “I love both.”
For other students, like Norah McNary, the choice was easier: after initially signing up to be in the cast, McNary quickly realized her home was in tech.
“I went there, and I got a look at all of it, and then I dropped out. Tech is more my thing,” she said. “I like building things, and I like always getting to be creative and let my thoughts out.”
Tatiana Bonia, who was part of the cast of the 2023 musical, said she is definitely feeling some opening night jitters.
“It’s really nerve-wracking, but then at the same time, you’re like, ‘Whoa, people are here to see me. That’s crazy,’” Bonia said.
Opening night marks the culmination of months of work for the club, with rehearsals beginning in earnest after Thanksgiving. From there, cast members rehearse four nights a week while the crew meets weekly.
Students who want to enroll in the club must sign a contract with their guardian affirming their commitment to the process.
To Mahon Paige, that commitment is an essential value the program teaches students.
“If they said they’re going to do it, sticking through to it,” she said, adding it also teaches students how to work collaboratively and imbues long-term planning, which she said has been lacking in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
DeFeo noted that between the range of grades in the program itself and the series of “high school helpers” who earn community service hours by volunteering, the club creates bonds between students who may not otherwise know each other.
“I just really think it’s great that… [students] in sixth grade all the way through the high school helpers [are] all working together and getting to know kids from different grades,” she said.
And Mahon Paige noted that only students are backstage on the night of the show.
“If we can get them to that point, we’ve done our jobs,” she said.
