The Lynnfield Public Library, in partnership with Lynnfield Public Schools Theater Department, is holding auditions on Monday, March 31, and Wednesday, April 2, for local adults interested in performing in LPL’s first community theater production, “Paranormal.”
It will be the second play written by Lynnfield High School student Patrick Malone following this past July’s performance of “Thesmophoria” at the Massachusetts Educational Theater Guild’s 2024 Drama Festival.
As with that play, Malone is also composing the music for “Paranormal” and will serve as the assistant director.
The play follows a man whose choral group goes up in flames after a theater fire, prompting him to start leaching money through a cult he starts with the guidance of two ghosts.
“I find cults very interesting, how people can fall for these kinds of things, and how the people creating them can be so evil,” Malone said. “There’s always a human inside of them next to the wickedness.”
Helping Malone along the way has been Lynnfield Middle School (LMS) Drama Director Shay Wainwright.
Now, in her third year as LMS Drama Director, Malone was the first student writer and director Wainwright had worked with.
“It was a very successful experience, for everyone involved. This year, we are doing another student-written play for Drama Fest, because after the first time went so well, I felt comfortable doing more,” she said. “Patrick has been very inspirational, as far as creating more of a student-led mentorship program at the middle school, and giving kids more opportunities to get behind the scenes and sort of create the shows.”
Drama Fest brings together theater departments from across the state to perform 40 plays each.
This year’s festival is being held in Lynnfield on Saturday, May 3rd, and already Wainwright has been approached by two eighth graders, Nora Hutter and CC Ragalevsky, to perform their play “Sonder.”
However, “Paranormal” is unique in that the play will draw in older community members to fill in the production’s roles.
“I know that there are a lot of people who are in town who went through the middle high school and middle school drama programs, who still pursue, or would like to be able to pursue theater,” Wainwright said. “I’m really hoping to bring other people out of the woodwork who have always wanted to or think it looks like fun.”
To that end, Wainwright reached out to LPL Director Abigail Porter in September to see if the library would be interested in partnering with the drama department to help put on Malone’s play.
“I think most of the staff at LPL are former theater kids. So we were all like, ‘Oh yeah, let’s do this,’” Porter said. “We’re hoping to have a student stage manager and student crew, and we’ll have some adults here and there helping out backstage. Then, the art guild has agreed to help us create some of the sets.”
It’s part of Porter’s mission to make the library a central hub for the town, which always boosts every facet of the community and serves as a welcoming place for all.
“Connected learning is a library concept where you bring peers together who have a combined interest, and you help them. You facilitate them learning together,” Porter said. “Everybody should feel welcome coming into this building. They should all feel like they belong here, and I feel very strongly about that. They should see themselves reflected on the shelves and in the programming.”
Wainwright and Malone can both testify to the power theater has to connect people and form communities where everyone is encouraging each other to be creative and pushing boundaries.
Importantly, those who aren’t comfortable being under the spotlight can still find their place somewhere in the numerous roles backstage, helping a production go smoothly without having to be front and center.
“Theater draws so many different kinds of people, and it offers opportunities to so many different people,” Wainwright said. “It’s really so inclusive and creates a space for a lot of people who otherwise, I think, wouldn’t have a space that they feel comfortable with.”
Most of Malone’s friends have been made through theater where they’ve bonded over common interests and have pushed each other to express themselves, even though he hasn’t just yet convinced them to write their own plays.
“I always wanted something of mine to be out there. I’ve always loved making stories, and I’ve always just wanted people to see them,” Malone said. “It was so amazing to watch something I made come to life on stage, and I’m excited to see it happen again.”
To audition for “Paranormal,” register at lynnfieldlibrary.org. Audition packets for the production will be available starting Monday, March 24.
