Writer, director, and composer Patrick Malone, a recent graduate of Lynnfield Middle School, brought his play “Thesmophoria” to life through the school’s drama company.
“Thesmophoria” took home a silver medal for overall performance and a stage manager’s award for the “most professional” performance at the Massachusetts Educational Theater Guild’s 2024 Drama Festival, LMS Drama Director Shay Wainwright said.
Wainwright said 54 students were members of the cast and crew for the play.
“Thesmophoria” is about the Greek myth of Hades’ abduction of and marriage to Persephone, which Malone said was inspired by his love for the stories of Greek mythology.
While Malone said he remembers Wainwright approaching him to use his play for Drama Fest after hearing he was working on one, Wainwright, who just finished her second year as the drama director at the school, said she remembers substituting for Malone’s English class when he told her about his play and asking if they could use it for Drama Fest.
“When he brought me the play, I read it and decided that it was at least as good as everything else I had read and something that I was willing to at least consider doing for the show,” Wainwright said.
She said she wasn’t concerned about working with Malone as an assistant director — “or a co-director, I think we ended up with” — because she knew he was capable of the work and was already a leader in the drama company.
Malone said he began working on the play in September and finished it in February.
When reading the first draft, Wainwright said she was “pleasantly surprised,” but told Malone it was too long.
She said Malone is the first student-director she has worked with.
“I did have some concerns putting Patrick in a position where he was having to be in charge over his friends,” Wainwright said. “But I think that everyone respected his work ethic enough and understood how much thought he had already put into the show.”
On the day of the festival, Malone said he was calm right until the moment before it was time to perform.
“Overall, I think it did very well. The Drama Fest performance was probably one of our better performances,” he said.
“It was really exciting to go into that process with a play that was so personal to everybody. Because it was ours… I think that really made everyone feel closer to each other as a crew,” Wainwright said. “Watching Patrick watch his play was a beautiful moment, because you see somebody who’s created something and see it brought to life, and that was brought to life well. That was really a very moving part of the day for me.”
“To be able to work with somebody who has that much creativity at their fingertips is really inspiring,” she added.
Although Malone didn’t perform in his play, he said he has been doing drama since he was 6 years old and appeared in his first play in sixth grade.
He said he has already written seven more plays and would like to direct more plays in the future.
“I think I should direct the next middle-school Drama Fest. You know, get Shay out of here. Just let me take over,” Malone joked. “I would rather someone else direct it to just get that experience… But I would love to direct a show again to just see my show on stage and people liking it.”
