Searsport High School - Windjammer Yearbook (Searsport, ME)

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HIGH SCHOOL LITERATURE DRAMA At this time of year, after midyear's are over and everyone has received either the good or the blad news, almost everyone, espe- cially high school students who are interested in drama, turn their interests to the pre- paring of the one-act. plays which will repre- sent their school in various contests, state and local. Whether -a play is to be entered in a state or local contest or put on simply for enter- tainment, it takes much work by both the cast and the director to produce it as it is meant to be produced. It also depends upon which degree of drama the play falls in. Maybe we should first find out what best defines drama itself. Drama is a form of expression which depends largely upon com- munication from the author or playwright to an audience through the actors and actresses. Drama generally takes the form o-f a theatre performance. But it can easily be transferred to the motion picture screen, to the radio through broadcasting, to a home television, or to a printed page. A drama is a story told in such a way that it must be acted out by living players to obtain its full effect. It is the most sophisti- cated and the most simple way of recording human endeavor or efforts. Its purpose is both to entertain and to instr.uct. The drama is said to have been brought into existence by the priests and poets of the ancient world. Since its beginning it has had an important social function and influence. Many things have changed because of the implications of the drama. As I said before, the tasks of putting on a pl-ay also depend upon the degree of drama in which the particular play falls. There are two main types of drama: t.ragedy and comedy. Tragedy was the ea.rliest form of drama. It showed the gods and the heroes in a series of unhappy events, usually ending in dis- aster. It can be as classic and scholarly as a person cares to make it. Comedy is a play which refiects life and humanity either humorously or seriously, but which end-s without disaster or death. It may be what is called high comedy, which has a fine characterization and witty dialogueg or it may be low comedy, which uses absurd situations and characters from low life. There is also farce which is the kind of comedy which draws its humor from impos- sible situations and ridiculous characters. Then there is also satire which was de- veloped early along with the tragedy and comedy. It is usually either a happy or a bit- ter comment on life. As you can see by the many things in- volved in the simple word drama, one must work hard to portray the type of character that is to be portrayed. Also one has to be able to set oneself in the mood of the play and also the type of drama it is. Drama is the expression of some particu- lar thing and thus it must be expressed in its own special way in order to convey its meaning to the audience. BONITA MURRAY '60 THE WATERFRONT KILL The scene takes place on a lonely deserted waterfront on the Blood Vein Sea. A man slowly walks along the rundown wharf. The man has on a gray raincoat with the collar turned up. His felt hat is turned down cov- ering most of his face. The man stops fre- quently, looking back to see if anyone is fol- lowing him. It was dreary as a heavy fog was quickly settling over the bay. A slight drizzle of rain was falling. Fog horns of the nearby boats were blowing, sending a chill up the man's back. If you were close enough you could hear the man saying to himself, She forced me to do itg she forced me to do it. Then the man suddenly stopped and opened a door leading into a dark building, and then turned on a light. He reached into his pocket and drew out a large knife to clean the fish which his wife had sent him down to clean. JAMES ENGSTROM '61 THE 1959 CARS I love the style of the new 1959 cars, espe- cially the General Motors products, which include Chevrolet, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Buick, Cadillac, and a few sports cars. All these cars have the new swept-wing look, which makes a person fall completely in love with them at first sight. I'll start with the front of the car and work to the rear. First., a person will notice the four head- lights which are a very good safety feature. If, at night, the driver forgets to dim his lights he may find he has either blinded the other driver or made him think there were two cars coming side by side. The safety feature is that a person can see further at night.

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Next we look at the height of the car. It is all of four feet high which makes it better to drive and also comes in handy when you want to go under trailer trucks at inter- sections. Next. we find the beautiful, protruding, razor-sharp fins which are excellent for slicing your way through pedestrians that happen across the street. This is also a good feature for owners. Sometimes children will come along and put their hands on your newly waxed and polished car, but after they have lost five or six fingers on the fins they learn to keep their hands off. These are very beautiful cars with small motors of only 300 horsepower or more. These are very good motors that will make the car, with the help of the driver, pass anything on the road but a gas station. The prices on these cars are so low that a person who only makes 310,000 a year can own one of these 56,000 beauties. The price is so low because of the wonderful metal they put into them. You can almost push your linger through the side, but this is very good because you save on insurance. If you -do hit another car, it won't do any damage to it. I have summed up these wonderful swept- wing beauties, so go down to your dealer's and buy one today. MAURICE DAY '60 MODERN DANCING It was Saturday night again and I went over to my friend's house and later we went to the dance at the Green Goose. I like to watch good dancers and occasionally I par- ticipate in a waltz and a fast fox-trot, but I never could quite catch on to that rock and roll. lt surely looks like fun. It is so graceful and fast, as t.hey throw each other from their arms, sometimes as high as five or six feet into the air. Of course, you do not have to worry about get- ting hurt from falling if you are limber enough. Beginners and older folks can wear special' padding over their clothes, which they can usually get at the door. The knee pads are twenty-five cents and the seats are fifty cents. If you know this dance well enough you really do not need the padding. However, just in case, the own- er has a special ambulance which can rush -anyone to the hospital if he breaks any bones. That is, if yo.u are covered by the Modern Dance Insurance Company that can be taken out at the door. It costs more for older ones to get the insurance than the ones under twenty-one. In most places if you are over twenty-one the insurance is required. Rock and Roll is about the best exercise you can get and have entertainment too, unless you want to run about four miles every day. So if you are still staying home and en- joying yourself, keep up with the modern times, live dangerously for a while and go out and rock and roll. It's about the best entertainment that I know of. EARL NICKERSON '60 DESCRIPTION OF A SCENE By Owen Smith '61 The place is the capital city of Bolshivik, a small principal city in Eastern Europe. The time is the early part of 1795. A revo- lution between the King and people has re- cently broken out with the peop1e's over- throwing their dreade-d, hated ruler. Now, as a result, justice is being carried out. The market square is a havoc of shouting, cheer- ing people. In the center of the square is a scaffold upon which are t.wo guillotines. For the last two days the beheading of the royal family has been going on. There is d-ead silence as the blade falls with a gruesome swish, then a dull thud as its sharp edge sends a head from its body, then a loud shout and cheer from the blood-thirsty mob as they watch the crown prince's head roll neatly across the scaffold floor. At that mo- ment there is a switch to cries of scorn as the ex-king and queen are led up to the scaf- fold. Young boys and girls poke at them with sticks, grown men and women throw garbage and shout curses at them. There is a deep silence as the executioner prepares their necks for execution. The crowd stares eagerly at the blade-down to the victims' necks and back to the blades. The execu- tioner pulls the releases and down plummet the blades with a lightning swish. The silence is broken by a dull thud, and off go the heads. The crowd goes wild. One man grabs the heads and runs them up a flag pole for everyone to see. This at last is justice, or is it?