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Eddie (Myles Fitzgerald) struggles with the decisions he's made during PVMHS Stage One's rendition of "A View from the Bridge." (Spenser Hasak) Purchase this photo

Peabody Stage One takes a final bow

Amanda Lurey

by

PEABODY — Peabody Veterans Memorial High School’s Stage One performed “A View from the Bridge” by Arthur Miller for the last time Monday night to a packed house of friends, family, and theater enthusiasts.

This comes after the Massachusetts High School Drama Festival finals, where PVMHS did not place this year. The competition does not release the placements of any schools that do not take a podium finish, but to make it to the third and final round on Saturday, PVMHS solidified itself in the top 15 out of approximately 100 schools.

And while Stage One may not have placed, the program did receive the most awards it was able to throughout the competition: six in the preliminary round, six in the semi-finals, and three in the finals. Each round is judged by different people, and awards do not automatically transfer from one round to the next.

Myles Fitzgerald, a junior who earned the Excellence in Acting award for the role of Eddie in all three rounds of the festival, said it was “really a challenge in the beginning” to get into the mindset and play this character.

Eddie is an Italian-American immigrant living in Brooklyn, N.Y., and he and his family welcome his wife’s cousins, who are also immigrants but do not have the proper documentation. The play follows Eddie as he makes one questionable decision after another.

“It was hard to kind of battle with the demons that this guy fights on a daily basis and still be me, which is very much not this guy, and not the way he deals with things,” Fitzgerald said.

Miller’s play was first staged in 1955, and Fitzgerald emphasized: “The fact that it’s ever-prevalent now says something big about what’s going on in our country right now, and how these are issues that have never been corrected. It’s like putting a Band-Aid on a septic wound.”

Matheus Muniz, a senior who received the Excellence in Acting award for the role of Marco in the finals, said that “the topic of the play is a hot button issue, and it’s one that I care about deeply.

“Even if the story we tell here is a little bit more complicated than a black-and-white situation that we may think of in the real world, it puts food for thought in the heads of people who see our show,” Muniz said.

Junior Nathalia Sandaire and senior Kadence Sarat received recognition in both the semi-finals and finals for Technical Excellence in Dramaturgy. Sandaire explained that dramaturgy is “a literary analysis of theater.” The two researched the play in a way that would allow every actor and production participant to ask questions and understand it fully. For example, since “A View from the Bridge” takes place in the 1950s, Sandaire and Sarat studied the Cold War.

“Usually we talk about the author, the story, the inspiration, political climate, all sorts of things that influence the story,” Sandaire said. “And in simpler terms, the way I think about dramaturgy is: If you have a show that takes place in the Wild West, you’d want your cast and crew to know about the Wild West.”

She added, “It felt absolutely wonderful to achieve the award, especially for a field that’s not as focused on in performing arts.”

Senior Tabi Muise, props manager, explained how decisions were made on how to visually relay the messages of the production. Ropes and mirrors were used as vehicles to carry the themes.

“You can see during the beginning, the ropes are on the ground surrounding Eddie at all times, kind of representing the home that he’s built, and the people around him, and they’re also inside of that. But as the show goes on, and he calls immigration, and he just ruins his relationship with everyone; his home is taken away, and he tries to resolve that,” Muise said. “And I see the scene when he’s tangled up with the ropes and stuff (as him) trying to salvage what he’s ruined, but he can’t.”

The mirrors, which were facing the audience, were a way to allow for reflection, with the goal of audience members being able to see themselves in the mirrors throughout the show.

Following the last curtain call, Stage One Director Stephanie Manning was emotional; she said it was a “cathartic moment for me.

“They worked so hard,” Manning said. “I mean, since the first week of December, we’ve been working on this production, and because we developed a strong concept for a classic piece of theater, their hands are in all of it. To see all of it be executed one last time, and for all of them to have true ownership over the material, was great.”

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