BATH

March is synonymous with basketball tourneys to those who follow college basketball, and for those high school teams that managed to extend their season until this weekend’s state championship round.

But for kids who show their extracurricular talents on the stage rather than the courts, there’s another kind of March Madness, and it is 82 years old.

In the upcoming weeks, more than 2,500 Maine high school students from 77 high schools will compete in the 82nd annual Maine Drama Festival. Local high schools participating this year include Freeport, Lisbon and Wiscasset.

Morse High in Bath is also one of those schools. Looking back to the origins of the festival, it turns out the Maine Drama Festival began at Morse as a spin off from the New England Drama Festival that began in 1929.

According to the festival’s website, “When individual festivals began in 1932, Morse High School Principal Arthur Scott of the Maine Principal’s Association (then the MSSPA) and Professor Stanley Smith of Bowdoin College administered the first, with regionals at Morse, Winslow and Orono — and the finals in Bowdoin’s Memorial Hall.”

This year the festival returns to its roots. Morse will host one of nine regional competitions Friday and Saturday, March 8 and 9. A panel of judges will select schools to advance to the state competition held two weeks later on March 23 and 24 at Freeport High School.

Morse’s entry is once again student written, called “STR8-2-VID30,” by senior Sophie Mayo, who’s acted in the Morse theater program since her freshman year. She wrote the play as a junior in advanced theater class and wasn’t surprised when it was selected by Morse drama teacher and one-act director Kevin O’Leary.

“I kind of had high hopes,” Mayo said as she sat on the stairs backstage recently, taking a break from leading an “Italian speed-through” of lines with the cast. “It’s really what I wanted to do and I showed my dedication. All in all I think I deserved it, so I was glad. I was excited.”

A news release describes “STR8-2- VID30” as a play about “Kurt who owns a VHS-only video store, but it’s 2013, and that’s, well, a problem. His sister, Violet, is tired of play acting with her brother every time she enters the store. Can’t they just move on? Or at least can’t she be Batman once in a while and he Robin?”

“We’re one of the only schools that do a student-written play,” O’Leary said as he dashed between the stage where the technical crew put finishing touches on the set (which looks a lot like River Bottom Video in Bath) and his classroom where Mayo and the cast ran lines. “We have since I took over the drama program in 2001. I’m a playwright. I’m a writer and I want to empower writers,” he said as his eyes bulged and he rifled through papers on the piano at the foot of the stage.

O’Leary is considered an “eccentric” by many members of the drama program. Senior Niesa Ryder, who has done stage crew since she was a freshman, said, “Thus far, I have had over three years of experience witnessing Mr. O’Leary and his many quirks. Whether he’s jumping up and down during a rehearsal, literally rolling on the floor laughing, or running around the stage, it’s obvious that Mr. O’Leary doesn’t hold anything back. I’ve been incredibly lucky to be part of a the- ater program led by such a unique individual, and I honestly believe that he is the epitome of an eccentric director.”

For Mayo, watching her script come to life in the hands of such an enthusiastic director was the hardest thing she’s ever done. “The hardest part was having to trash things that I liked that maybe didn’t go with the storyline that Mr. O’Leary advised me not to have in there. It’s been a strange experience, and sometimes I forget that I wrote it. It seems as if these kids … they brought it to the table. It’s weird when people call me playwright.”

O’Leary understands the pressure being playwright can mean for a kid. “It’s a lot of responsibility. You’re like a rock star for like 12 months. Fifty-five kids are wearing your name on a hoodie,” he said. But the opportunity for a student to see their work produced onstage is one that many grown up, well-seasoned and even highly polished playwrights who dedicate their life to scripting plays may never get.

“Sophie is the first freshman I ever cast in a leading role and she’s had a starring role in all my one acts. This was a chance I didn’t want her to miss,” O’Leary said.

For the rest of the cast, the experience of performing an original show is exciting, too.

Dana Douglass is a senior who’s done theater since her sophomore year. “It’s a lot of fun to originate roles and watch your character develop and unfold,” she said.

Seniors Jen Dolloff and Clare Tolan have been involved with the drama festival since they were freshman and one of the things they like best is that doing theater keeps them involved in school without having to do sports. Both played three season sports before coming to Morse.

“I mean I’ve always done sports to stay involved, but discovering theater was one of the highlights of high school. These are kids who are more kind of like me. It’s like I can do theater and still feel involved without doing sports,” Tolan said.

“Theater is different,” Dolloff said. “It’s like we’re one big family.” That family extends not only through the Morse drama department, but to other schools as well.

Freeport competes in the festival as a Class B school and Morse as a Class A school. Both high schools champion each other since they are not in direct competition.

“I love the festival bond we have. It’s like a sporting event and we cheer for each other and there’s nothing like it,” Dolloff said.

The regional round of the Maine Drama Festival gets under way Friday, March 8, at Morse High School, 826 High St., beginning at 6 p.m. with MCI, followed by Wiscasset at 7 p.m. and Morse at 8 p.m. The competition resumes Saturday morning with Boothbay at 11 a.m., South Portland at noon and Waynflete at 1 p.m. The festival concludes that evening with Windham at 4 p.m. and Freeport at 5 p.m.

Tickets are $7 and $3 for students.